Dynamic availability-based integration of external functionality

ABSTRACT

A system includes a user interface allowing a developer to select a function to supplement functionality of an application under development. A data store holds identifiers for functions representing external functionality available from third party applications. A code generation module provides a software object to the developer for incorporation into a state of the application. The state includes a user interface element associated with an entity. When the state is instantiated, an action query is transmitted to a search system with the unique identifier of the selected function and information about the entity. The user interface element is selectively visually adapted in response to the search system response. In response to user selection of the user interface element, a search result, the search system is displayed, including (i) an identifier of a target application and (ii) an access mechanism for a specified state of the target application, is displayed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/923,226 filed on Oct. 26, 2015. The entire disclosure of theapplication referenced above is incorporated by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to development systems andmethods for providing external functionality to applications.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the use of Internet-connected devices such assmartphones has grown exponentially. The number and variety of availablesoftware applications for such devices has similarly grown by orders ofmagnitude. Presently, many diverse functions can be performed and manydiverse sets of data can be analyzed on any given Internet-connecteddevice. The applications that offer this functionality and data spanbusiness-oriented applications, educational applications, games, newapplications, shopping applications, messaging applications, mediastreaming applications, social media applications, etc.

With such a wide array of available applications, many users ofInternet-connected devices are not aware of the availability ofapplications that may perform functions and/or provide data of interestto the users. Even app developers, who generally focus on one segment ofthe market for applications, are unable to keep up to date on all of theapplications that their users might find valuable in other segments.

SUMMARY

A system of one or more computing devices includes a user interfacepresented to a first application developer. The system includes a datastore configured to store information identifying a plurality offunctions and corresponding unique identifiers. Each of the plurality offunctions corresponds to external functionality available from thirdparty applications. The system includes an application functionalitymanagement module configured to receive a selection from the firstapplication developer of a first function of the plurality of functionsto supplement functionality of a first application under development bythe first application developer. The system includes a code generationmodule configured to provide a first software object to the firstapplication developer for incorporation into at least a first state ofthe first application. The first state includes a first user interfaceelement associated with a first entity. The first software objectincludes instructions for, upon the first state being instantiated,transmitting an action query to a search system. The action queryincludes the corresponding unique identifier of the first function andan indication of the first entity. The first software object includesinstructions for receiving an action response from the search system.The first software object includes instructions for selectively visuallyadapting the first user interface element in response to the actionresponse. The first software object includes instructions for, inresponse to user selection of the first user interface element,displaying a plurality of items from a result set from the searchsystem. A first item of the plurality of items includes (i) anidentifier of a target application and (ii) an access mechanism for aspecified state of the target application. The first software objectincludes instructions for, in response to user selection of the firstitem, actuating the access mechanism to open the target application tothe specified state.

In other features, the visually adapting the first user interfaceelement is performed in response to the action response indicating thatthe first function is not available for the first entity. In otherfeatures, the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element invisible. In otherfeatures, the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element in gray to indicatenon-interactivity.

In other features, the first software object includes instructions forextracting text from the first state and including the extracted text inthe action query as the indication of the first entity. In otherfeatures, the first software object includes instructions fortransmitting a query wrapper to a search system in response to userselection of the first user interface element. A response to the querywrapper from the search system includes the result set. In otherfeatures, the action response from the search system includes the resultset.

In other features, the first software object includes instructions for,in response to the user selection of the first user interface element,extracting visual attributes of the text from the first state andincluding the extracted visual attributes of the text in the actionquery. In other features, the visual attributes include at least one ofvertical location of portions of the text within the first state, fontsize, font type, and font emphasis.

In other features, the access mechanism specifies downloading andinstalling the target application from a digital distribution platformprior to opening the target application. In other features, the firstitem includes a second access mechanism. The second access mechanismspecifies opening a web edition of the target application to thespecified state. In other features, the access mechanism includes ascript to navigate from a default state of the target application to thespecified state of the target application.

In other features, the system includes an application blockingmanagement module configured to store a blacklist. The blacklistindicates applications and application states to exclude from the resultset. In other features, the code generation module is configured toincorporate the blacklist into the first software object, such that thefirst software object further includes instructions for at least one ofremoving application states matching the blacklist from the result setreceived from the search system, providing the blacklist to the searchsystem as part of the action query, and preventing display ofapplication states from the result set that match the blacklist.

A method includes presenting a user interface to a first applicationdeveloper. The method includes storing, in a data store, informationidentifying a plurality of functions and corresponding uniqueidentifiers. Each of the plurality of functions corresponds to externalfunctionality available from third party applications. The methodincludes receiving a selection from the first application developer of afirst function of the plurality of functions to supplement functionalityof a first application under development by the first applicationdeveloper. The method includes generating a first software object to thefirst application developer for incorporation into at least a firststate of the first application. The first state includes a first userinterface element associated with a first entity. The first softwareobject includes instructions for, upon the first state beinginstantiated, transmitting an action query to a search system. Theaction query includes the corresponding unique identifier of the firstfunction and an indication of the first entity. The first softwareobject includes instructions for receiving an action response from thesearch system. The first software object includes instructions forselectively visually adapting the first user interface element inresponse to the action response. The first software object includesinstructions for, in response to user selection of the first userinterface element, displaying a plurality of items from a result setfrom the search system. A first item of the plurality of items includes(i) an identifier of a target application and (ii) an access mechanismfor a specified state of the target application. The first softwareobject includes instructions for, in response to user selection of thefirst item, actuating the access mechanism to open the targetapplication to the specified state.

In other features, the visually adapting the first user interfaceelement is performed in response to the action response indicating thatthe first function is not available for the first entity. In otherfeatures, the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element invisible. In otherfeatures, the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element in gray to indicatenon-interactivity. In other features, the first software object includesinstructions for extracting text from the first state and including theextracted text in the action query as the indication of the firstentity.

In other features, the first software object includes instructions fortransmitting a query wrapper to a search system in response to userselection of the first user interface element. A response to the querywrapper from the search system includes the result set. In otherfeatures, the action response from the search system includes the resultset. In other features, the first software object includes instructionsfor, in response to the user selection of the first user interfaceelement, extracting visual attributes of the text from the first stateand including the extracted visual attributes of the text in the actionquery. In other features, the visual attributes include at least one ofvertical location of portions of the text within the first state, fontsize, font type, and font emphasis.

In other features, the access mechanism specifies downloading andinstalling the target application from a digital distribution platformprior to opening the target application. In other features, the firstitem includes a second access mechanism. The second access mechanismspecifies opening a web edition of the target application to thespecified state. In other features, the access mechanism includes ascript to navigate from a default state of the target application to thespecified state of the target application.

In other features, the method includes storing a blacklist. Theblacklist indicates applications and application states to exclude fromthe result set. In other features, generating the first software objectincludes incorporating the blacklist such that the first software objectfurther includes instructions for at least one of removing applicationstates matching the blacklist from the result set received from thesearch system, providing the blacklist to the search system as part ofthe action query, and preventing display of application states from theresult set that match the blacklist.

Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will becomeapparent from the detailed description, the claims and the drawings. Thedetailed description and specific examples are intended for purposes ofillustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of thedisclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will become more fully understood from thedetailed description and the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram with graphical userinterface examples according to the principles of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 includes further graphical user interface examples consistentwith FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 includes further graphical user interface examples consistentwith FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, but resulting from a different user interaction.

FIG. 4 is a simplified functional block diagram and example of graphicaluser interfaces according to another implementation of the principles ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts further graphical user interface examples consistent withFIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a graphical representation of an understanding of states ascombinations of functions and entities.

FIG. 7 is a graphical representation of an example function ontology.

FIG. 8 is a simple graphical example of linking application-specificentity information to a canonical entity.

FIG. 9 is a graphical example of conversion from functional URLs toaccess URLs.

FIG. 10 is a high-level functional block diagram depicting how theprinciples of the present disclosure apply to an application ecosystem.

FIG. 11 is a simplified graphical user interface of an exampleimplementation of a developer portal.

FIG. 12 is a simplified graphical user interface of anotherimplementation of an example developer portal.

FIG. 13, FIG. 14, and FIG. 15 each depict example contents of a querywrapper sent to a search system.

FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 each depict example contents of app state resultsmessages returned in response to a query wrapper from a search system.

FIG. 18 depicts example contents of an action query sent to a searchsystem.

FIG. 19 depicts example contents of an action results message returnedin response to the action query.

FIG. 20 is a high-level functional block diagram of an example developerportal.

FIG. 21 is a high-level functional block diagram of an exampleadvertiser portal.

FIG. 22 is a high-level block diagram of an example search system andrepresentative data sources relied on by the search system.

FIG. 23 is a graphical representation of an example application recordformat.

FIG. 24 is a graphical representation of an example application recordaccording to the format of FIG. 23.

FIG. 25 is a graphical representation of an example application staterecord format.

FIG. 26 is a graphical representation of an example application staterecord according to the format of FIG. 25.

FIG. 27 is a graphical representation of an example access templaterecord format.

FIG. 28 is a graphical representation of an example access templaterecord according to the format of FIG. 27.

FIG. 29 is a graphical representation of an example entity recordformat.

FIG. 30 and FIG. 31 are each a graphical representation of an exampleentity record according to the format of FIG. 29.

FIG. 32 is a functional block diagram of an example implementation of asearch module.

FIG. 33 is a functional block diagram of another example implementationof the search module.

FIG. 34 is a functional block diagram of an example implementation of asoftware development SDK library provided by the developer portal.

FIG. 35A and FIG. 35B together are a flowchart of example overalloperation of the development system.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart of example operation of the development portal.

FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B together are a flowchart of example operation ofthe search system of FIG. 22.

In the drawings, reference numbers may be reused to identify similarand/or identical elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Introduction

A developer of an application (referred to interchangeably as an app)generally focuses on providing a good user experience for a limitednumber of functions. For example, an app developer may focus onproviding accurate and intuitively-presented movie showtimes but may notinvest effort in providing other related functionality, such asdirections to movie theaters, dining options near the movie theaters,and/or reviews of the movies.

While an app developer would generally prefer that a user remain withintheir own app, additional functionality, and therefore an improved userexperience, may be provided by connecting to other apps. Connecting toother apps may provide a better user experience than attempting toreplicate the functionality within the developer's own app. For example,if the developer is skilled at presenting movie showtimes and possessesvaluable data and processing algorithms related to showtimes, thedeveloper may not have expertise or unique content related to moviereviews. The developer can therefore rely on other apps whose focus isdirected to movie reviews. For some functionality, such as GPS-baseddirections, a massive investment in mapping data and routing algorithmsis required. As a result, few developers attempt to replicate mappingfunctionality within their app.

In order to access the functionality of another app, a developer mayhard code a reference to that app when writing their code. In somecircumstances, it is virtually guaranteed that an operating system willinclude a certain app. For example, a developer may reasonably expectthat Google Maps will be available on an Android smartphone, althoughthere are notable exceptions to this general rule, especially outside ofthe United States.

For most other categories of apps, such as movie review apps orrestaurant review apps, there is no guarantee that any particular appwill be present. Therefore, hard coding access to other specific apps isan exercise in guesswork. Also, the constant evolution of the appecosystem means that the most popular, the most widely installed, andthe most useful apps in any category may be different and may changewith time.

For certain actions, a request may be handled by the operating system.For example, to map a location or to generate directions to adestination, a request can be passed to the operating system. Theoperating system may present the user with a list of installed apps toservice that request. The operating system may allow the user to chooseone of the apps as a default and, once a default is selected, theaverage user may never revisit that choice. Certain operating systemsmay not present a choice for certain requests, instead passing therequest to a default app or service unless a specific configurationchange is made by the user.

For all these reasons, the ability of an app developer to connect toother apps that would provide valuable functionality to the appdeveloper's users is limited and difficult to implement. There is alsono systematic way for developers to enter business relationships witheach other. For example, an ad hoc arrangement may be possible where thedeveloper of a movie reviews app compensates the developer of a movieshowtimes app for each time that the movie reviews app is installed as aresult of an advertisement or suggestion in the movie showtimes app.

The present disclosure presents a system where an app developer canquickly and easily add a wide variety of external functionality to anapp. Instead of hard coding for specific apps, the present disclosureallows the developer to define a function of interest and, when a userexpresses a desire to activate that function, a search system providesone or more apps that provide the desired functionality. These appresults may include apps already installed and may also include apps notyet installed. For apps that are not yet installed, a mechanism may beprovided for easy installation of the app.

For a streamlined user experience, the developer may link a userdirectly to a specific state within a specific app. For example, thedeveloper of a movie showtimes app may integrate movie reviews asexternal functionality. Instead of simply linking to the front page (or,default state or home state) of a movie reviews app, the developer maylink the user directly to the state within the movie reviews app wherereview(s) for the presently-displayed movie are shown.

The developer can identify a user's interest in both an entity and afunction and provide direct links to app states that offer the specifiedfunction with respect to the specified entity. In other words, when thedeveloper's app is displaying showtimes for a first movie (specifiedentity) and the user of the developer's app selects a reviews (specifiedfunction) button provided by the present disclosure, the results mayinclude direct links to states of apps that show movie reviews (thespecified function) for the first movie (the specified entity).

The developer may explicitly specify the function and the entity to thesearch system as separate items of data. In other implementations, thedeveloper may provide a text string to the search system that includesboth the function and the entity. For example only, the provided stringmay include a concatenation of the specified function and the specifiedentity.

The name used for the specified entity may be the name used internallyby the developer or may be a name recognized or dictated by the searchsystem. Similarly, the specified function may use the developer'slanguage to describe the desired functionality or may include a specifictextual or other identifier that corresponds to a specific functionrecognized by the search system.

Dynamic User Interface Adaptation

In some circumstances, when a user attempts to invoke certainfunctionality for an entity, there may be no results returned by thesearch system. For example, the user may be looking for movie reviews ofan obscure movie that did not see wide distribution. As a result, thesearch system may not be aware of any states of an application thatwould provide movie reviews for the specified movie (and they may noteven exist).

In situations like this, the user experience may be improved byindicating to the user that the functionality is not available. Anadaptive user interface may visibly alter a user interface elementcorresponding to this external functionality to indicate itsunavailability. For example, a button used to invoke externalfunctionality can be removed from the display if the search system wouldnot be able to provide that functionality.

As another example, a button could be “grayed out” (that is, removingany color) so that the user will recognize that this button isinoperative. In addition to “graying out” the button, any feedback forinteraction with the button may be disabled. For example, if there isnormally a three-dimensional effect producing apparent movement of thebutton upon actuation (such as clicking or tapping), this effect may besuppressed. By leaving the user interface element visible yet visuallyidentifying it as unavailable, the user may recognize that thefunctionality may sometimes be available, but is simply not availablefor this particular entity.

In various implementations, the developer may add multiple types ofexternal functionality to a state (or, screen) of the app underdevelopment. Each type of integrated functionality may correspond to arespective button in the layout for the state. For example only, if fourtypes of external functionality have been integrated into a state, anarray of four corresponding buttons may be included within the state.

For functions that are not available for a given entity, thecorresponding buttons may be removed to conserve screen real estate.Removal/invisibility of buttons may be especially useful when functionsare potentially mutually exclusive. For example, movies are generallynot both playing in theatres and available for legal streaming.Therefore, external functionality for streaming viewing of a movie andbuying movie tickets for a movie will generally not be availablesimultaneously.

The developer, however, can include both types of external functionalityin every state of their app related to movies and rely on the searchsystem to identify which functions are available for that entity. Thismay also automatically accommodate uncommon circumstances, such as amovie being available for streaming at the same time the movie isplaying in a second-run theatre.

In other implementations, instead of having an array of buttons—one foreach type of external functionality—a single external functionalitybutton or other user interface element may be placed in the state by thedeveloper. For example, a single “more functionality” button may open apop-up window providing a list of actions specified by the appdeveloper.

These actions may have been filtered by the search system based on theiravailability for the given state. For example, when the developer hasidentified four functions to be integrated with a state and one of thoseactions (or, functions) is not available for the current state, thepop-up window would only show the three available actions. Once the userselects one of the actions, results such as application states relevantto the action are provided to the user.

For example only, a search may be conducted with the search system basedon the selected action. In other implementations, the search system mayhave already provided results to the user device while determining whichfunctions were available for the specific entity. Identifyingunavailability of actions to a user may permit the developer of an appto include more external functionality without the risk that irrelevantor unavailable functionality will confuse or distract the user.

The query to the search system may be executed in parallel with one ormore other queries the developer's app may perform in order to render astate. In various implementations, the developer's app may query aserver of the developer to obtain data to populate the state. Forexample, a movie showtimes app would generally not maintain a localdatabase of all possible showtimes for all possible movies. Instead, themovie showtimes app would likely consult a server to obtain showtimesbased on user interest. While the showtimes are being retrieved from theserver, a search system according to the present disclosure can identifywhich action or actions are available for the entity identified withinthe application state.

While identifying whether one or more actions is available, the searchsystem may also return results (including app state results) to thedeveloper's app. This form of pre-fetching allows results to be shown toa user as soon as the user accesses the external functionality userinterface element.

Monetization

Further, a monetization system is integrated so that a third-partydeveloper can promote their app and compensate the first app developerfor activity driven by the first app developer. For example,compensation may be based on one or more of impressions (a user seeingthe sponsored app), clicks (a user clicking, touching, or otherwiseselecting the sponsored app being presented by the first app developer),cost per action or engagement (advertiser determines the action orengagement they are willing to pay for), and installs (when thesponsored app had not previously been installed and, as a result of thefirst app developer, the sponsored app being installed by a user). Aportion of the revenue received from an advertising developer may beretained by the monetization system and the remainder is distributed tothe first app developer.

A developer may decide to promote their app even if they do not takeadvantage of the external functionality provided by the presentdisclosure. Not every advertiser (or, sponsor) will be a developer.Because state-specific links are provided, an advertiser may desire topromote their product or business (such as a restaurant) as a sponsoredstate within another app (such as a restaurant reviews app).

The advertiser may commit to paying a specified amount when theirbusiness or product is one of the specified states. The advertiser maypay to promote their business or product, such as by making a visualenhancement or moving the result further up in the results list. Inaddition, as described in more detail below, the advertiser may specifykeywords or competitor establishments or products that will lead to theadvertiser's states being displayed.

To allow the first developer to harness the functionality of the rest ofthe app ecosystem with a minimal amount of extra coding, a developerportal is offered to developers. The developer portal offers pre-writtencode that a developer can incorporate into their app with little to nocustom coding. The pre-written code may be offered as part of a softwaredevelopment kit (SDK), which may be implemented as a plug-in for anintegrated development environment, or as one or more libraries orpackages.

Included with the code (referred to below for simplicity as an SDKlibrary) or provided separately are user interface elements, such aslogos, fonts, and graphics. The first app developer may add a button toone of the states (or, screens) of the app and display a logo from thedeveloper portal on the face of the button. The action performed by thebutton (querying the search system and displaying results) is simplyprovided by a call to the SDK library. The software development kit mayeven automate creation and placement of a button or other user interfaceelement and may automatically associate the button with correspondingcode, such as a routine or function contained within the SDK library.

The developer portal may allow the first developer to make choicesrelating to monetization, such as whether and how sponsored apps shouldbe presented to a user, and how to be compensated for the display,access, or installation of sponsored apps. The first developer may alsobe able to select apps or classes of apps not to present to the user.For example, the developer may not want to present a third-party appthat is a competitor of the first developer or that duplicates some ofthe functionality of the first developer's own app.

The settings chosen by the developer may be stored local to thedeveloper and integrated into the app itself or may be stored by thedeveloper portal and shared with the search system. As mentioned above,when an end user of the developer's app clicks on a button enabled bythe developer portal, a query will be sent to a search system, whichreturns app state results.

The returned results can be displayed to the user by code includedwithin the libraries or packages provided by the developer portal. Theresults may be presented by themselves in a full screen or as only partof the screen real estate of the originating app. In someimplementations, the developer is allowed to develop their own custompresentation layout for how the returned apps will be displayed. Inother implementations, the display format may be fixed by the providerof the development portal. Although the provider of the developmentportal and the provider of the search system will be treated as a singleentity below for ease of explanation, the developer portal and thesearch system may be operated by independent organizations.

User Interface Examples

In FIG. 1, an unsophisticated Showtimes App 100 is shown running on auser device, such as smartphone 104. A first state of the Showtimes App100 is shown at 100-1, and the corresponding reference numeral for thesmartphone 104 is 104-1. In the simple interface of the Showtimes App100-1, a search bar 108 identifies the movie for which showtimes arebeing displayed (a fictional “The Hobbit XIII”) and allows the user tosearch for a different movie. The Showtimes App 100 may search fortheaters around the present location of the smartphone 104 but may allowfor the user to change the specified location using a “Change Location”button 112.

When a user of the Showtimes App 100 selects (such as by tapping theirfinger on a magnifying glass icon 114) the entity to be searched, aquery wrapper 116 is sent to a search system 120. In variousimplementations, the Showtimes App 100 may first determine theaters thatare showing the selected entity (“The Hobbit XIII”) before sending thequery wrapper 116. In other implementations, the Showtimes App 100 willsend the movie entity in the query wrapper 116 and optionally send afurther query wrapper including indications of the movie theatres wherethe movie entity is being shown.

In FIG. 1, the Showtimes App 100 identifies movie theatres and thentransmits the query wrapper 116. Therefore, the query wrapper 116includes context objects 118-1, 118-2, 118-3, and 118-4 for the movieentity and three movie theatre entities, respectively. Corresponding tothe context objects 118 are query objects 120-1, 120-2, 120-3, and120-4, respectively.

The query object 120-1 for the movie entity specifies a function/actionof Movie_Reviews. Although shown in human readable text, the queryobject for Movie_Reviews may simply be a numerical value dictated by thesearch system 120 and known to the Showtimes App 100. The contextobjects 118-2, 118-3, and 118-4 correspond to fictional theatres “MCAPlaza 20,” “JRM Townplace 16,” and “Brookline Cineplex,” respectively.The query objects 120-2, 120-3, and 120-4 for the movie theatre entitieseach include a pair of actions: tickets and directions.

As described in more detail below, the search system 120 identifiesactions from the query objects that are available for theircorresponding context objects. These action results 124 are providedback to the Showtimes App 100. In the state 100-2 of the Showtimes App100, corresponding to reference numeral 104-2 of the smartphone 104,user interface elements are displayed based on the action results 124.

Because the search system 120 determines that a Movie_Reviews action wasavailable for “The Hobbit XIII,” a reviews button 128 is displayed. Thebutton 128 may be labeled with an icon or a logo of the supplier of adeveloper portal or an operator of the search system 120. For exampleonly, a stylized “Q” may be displayed, which is associated with Quixey,Inc., of Mountain View, Calif.

Because the search system 120 determines that a directions action wasavailable for each of the movie theatre entities, directions buttons130-1, 130-2, and 130-3 (the final button of which may be visible byscrolling the display) allow the user to obtain directions to the movietheatre.

Meanwhile, tickets actions are indicated by buttons 132-1 and 132-3. Atickets button 132-2 or “JRM Townplace 16” is omitted because the searchsystem 120 was not able to identify any application states that couldperform the action (buy tickets) for the entity (“JRM Townplace 16”).

In various implementations, the action query may provide multipleentities along with the “tickets” function designation: for example,“The Hobbit XIII” and “MCA Plaza 20.” With both entities, the searchsystem 120 can indicate whether an action is available that allowstickets to be purchased for “MCA Plaza 20” for the specific movie “TheHobbit XIII.” This may require the search system 120 to identify anaction template (also known as a function template) that has twoparameters: a movie identifier and a movie theatre identifier.

The absent button 132-2 may be completely invisible or may be shown withan outline, as drawn in FIG. 1. In other implementations, the button132-2 may be shown grayed out. When the button 132-2 is invisible, thelayout of the results may change. For example, the directions button130-2 may move up to take the place of the absent button 132-2.

When the context object is a string, which may not exactly match therecord in the search system 120, the search system 120 may attempt toidentify entities that best match the provided string. Entities that area reasonable match for the string but cannot be used for the actionspecified in the query object are excluded. For example, if there were agraphic novel entitled “The Hobbit XIII,” it is likely that aMovie_Reviews action would not be available for this entity. Therefore,even though the name of the entity may be a close match, the graphicnovel entity would be excluded.

In FIG. 2, if the user selects the reviews button 128, applicationstates that can provide reviews of “The Hobbit XIII” are displayed,either in the Showtimes App 100 or in some external application. In someimplementations, the search system 120 returns application state results140 at the same time it is returning actions results 124.

In other implementations, the search system 120 is queried once againusing the query wrapper 136 only after the user actuates the reviewsbutton 128. The query wrapper 136 includes a context object for “TheHobbit XIII” and a query object of Movie_Reviews 136-2. In response tothe query wrapper 136, the search system 120 doesn't just identifywhether there are application states that perform the specified functionfor the specified entity, but actually provides information about thoseapplication states in the application state results 140.

For example, the application states results 140 may be presented as deepview cards (DVCs). A DVC for an application or a state of an applicationshows additional information, not just the identification of theapplication or application state. For example, the information mayinclude a title of the application state or a description of theapplication state, which may be a snippet of text from the applicationstate. Other metadata may be provided from the application state,including images, location, number of reviews, average review, andstatus indicators. For example, a status indicator of “open now” or“closed” may be applied to a business depending on whether the currenttime is within the operating hours of the business.

Some DVCs may emphasize information that led to the DVC being selectedas a search result. For example, text within the DVC that matches auser's query may be shown in bold or italics. The DVC may alsoincorporate elements that allow direct actions, such as the ability toimmediately call an establishment or to transition directly to a mappingapplication to get navigation directions to the establishment. Otherinteractions with the DVC (such as tapping or clicking any other area ofthe DVC) may take the user to the indicated state or application. Asdescribed in more detail below, this may be accomplished by opening therelevant app or, if the app is not installed, opening a website relatedto the desired application state. In other implementations, an app thatis not installed may be downloaded, installed, and then executed inorder to reach the desired application state.

In other words, a DVC includes an indication of the application or stateas well as additional content from the application or state itself. Theadditional content allows the user to make a more informed choice aboutwhich result to choose, and may even allow the user to directly performan action without having to navigate to the application state. If theaction the user wants to take is to obtain information, in somecircumstances the DVC itself may provide the necessary information.

A graphical presentation of the app state results 140 is displayed in astate 100-3 of the Showtimes App 100, and the corresponding referencenumeral for the smartphone 104 is 104-4. The graphical results may bedisplayed in a portion of the Showtimes App 100, and the graphicalresults may appear to hover (not shown) over native content of theShowtimes App 100, such as by restricting the graphical results to aportion of the Showtimes App 100, leaving a border of native content ofthe Showtimes App 100.

In addition, the graphical results may be shown on a semi-transparentbackground so that the native content of the Showtimes App 100 (movieshowtimes) remains at least faintly visible. In various implementations,the results may slide in from one side or from the top or bottom,suggesting to the user that the results can be dismissed by swiping inan opposite direction.

The graphical results may be presented under a header 142. In thisexample, each of the results corresponds to the entity “The HobbitXIII.” A first result corresponds to a FANDANGO application 144.Associated with the Fandango application 144 is an icon 146, a rating148 for “The Hobbit XIII” according to the Fandango application, and ametric 150, such as the number of installs of the corresponding app.

When the user clicks within the rounded rectangle surrounding theFandango application 144, the SDK library within the Showtimes App 100will transition to the “Fandango” application and specifically to astate showing movie reviews for “The Hobbit XIII.” Another result is asponsored result, as indicated by a text tag 152 as well as shading. Thesponsored result, the NETFLIX app, is not yet installed and thereforehas an indication (in this case, an icon 154) that the application mustfirst be downloaded and installed.

Alternatively, an “(Installed)” parenthetical could be used with apps,such as Fandango, that are already installed on the smartphone 104.Other text, such as “Open,” may instead be used when the app is alreadyinstalled. Apps not yet installed may be labelled with “Download” or“Install” labels. Equivalently, icons or other visual cues maydistinguish between apps that can simply be opened (including nativeapps and, as described in more detail below, web apps) or that firstneed to be installed.

Selecting the NETFLIX application result may trigger the opening of adigital distribution platform in either a web browser or a dedicatedapp, such as the native Netflix app available from the Google PLAY STOREdigital distribution platform. The identity of the app to be downloadedis provided to the digital distribution platform so that the user isimmediately presented with the ability to download the desired app. Insome implementations, the download may begin immediately, and the usermay be given the choice of approving installation. Upon completion ofinstallation, the SDK library may automatically navigate to the desiredstate of the Netflix app—that is, the state for reviews of “The HobbitXIII.”

Other data shown for each result may include snippets of text (such asthe first few words of a review), an image (such as a screenshot of thestate), a reliability metric (such as number of user reviews), afreshness metric (such as most recent observed update to the state),etc.

Sponsored apps can be highlighted in a way that is perceptible to theuser, including increasing the font size, using different colors, addinga graphic or text sponsorship label, etc. In some implementations, thesponsorship may not be displayed to the user, and may simply cause thesponsored app to be moved up in the rankings. Sponsored apps may begrouped together and labeled with a “Sponsored Apps” title (not shown).In various implementations, the sponsored apps may be shown at the topof the list, at the bottom of the list, in the middle or the list, orinterspersed throughout the list.

As described in more detail below, apps may also be accessed throughintermediary software, such as a web browser. These apps, such as HTML5apps, may be shown with an open action and may be identified as being aweb-based app using an icon or text. For example, a globe icon is shownat 156 to indicate that the IMDB MOVIES & TV app will be opened in a webbrowser. As another example, a text label (not shown) could be included,such as “Open In Browser” or “Open On The Web.”

In FIG. 3, the user selects the directions button 130-2 for “MCA Plaza20.” In response to the directions button 130-1 being actuated, a querywrapper 158 is sent to the search system 120. The query wrapper 158includes a context object 158-1 for “MCA Plaza 20” and a query object158-2 for Driving_Directions.

The search system 120 returns app state results 160 to the Showtimes App100. The app state results 160 are displayed in the state 100-4 of theShowtimes App 100, which corresponds to reference numeral 104-6 in FIG.3. For example, a GOOGLE MAPS mapping application result 162 includes abutton 164 corresponding to a state of the Google Maps application atwhich directions for the “MCA Plaza 20” will be shown.

In various implementations, if other portions of the Google Maps result162 other than the button 164 are selected (such as by clicking ortouching), the Google Maps application will open to the home or defaultstate instead of directly to the state corresponding to “MCA Plaza 20.”In FIG. 3, a Sponsored Apps area 166 is designated and includessponsored applications states, which may not have been included inorganic results or may initially have been lower down the list oforganic results.

In FIG. 4, another example Showtimes App 170 includes a first state170-1 shown in a smartphone at 172-1. In the Showtimes App 170, thedeveloper has identified multiple actions corresponding to the movieentity (in this case, “The Hobbit XIII”). When a search is conducted,such as by actuating a magnifying glass icon 174, a query wrapper 176 issent to the search system 120. The query wrapper 176 includes a contextobject 176-1 of “The Hobbit XIII.” A query object 176-2 lists fouractions: Movie_Reviews; Movie_Info; Buy_Tickets; Pre-Order_Home_Release.

The search system 120 identifies whether any application states providethe requested functionality with respect to the specified entity. Theresults of this inquiry are provided as action results 178 to theShowtimes App 170. The state 170-2 of the Showtimes App 170, which isshown with respect to representation 172-2 of the smartphone 172 listssearch results from the Showtimes App 170 and also includes amulti-function button 180. The multi-function button 180 may be labeledwith images and/or text, such as “More . . . ” to indicate that moreactions may be performed than are shown in the rest of the state.

In FIG. 5, actuation by the user of the multi-function button 180 causesa “Choose Action” interface 182 to be displayed. The Choose Actioninterface 182 may be displayed as a pop-up, a drop-down list, a separatestate, etc. As shown in FIG. 5, the Choose Action interface 182 includesa Movie Reviews button 184, a Buy Tickets button 186, and a Movie Infobutton 188.

Because the developer had specified four actions in the query object176-2 of FIG. 4, the fact that the Choose Action interface 182 onlyincludes three buttons indicates that the fourth action(Pre-Order_Home_Release) was not available for “The Hobbit XIII” in thesearch system 120. If the user actuates the button 184, a query wrapperis sent to the search system 120.

The search system 120 identifies relevant application states thatprovide movie reviews for “The Hobbit XIII” and these application statesresults are provided to the Showtimes App 170. In one exampleimplementation, state 170-3 of the Showtimes App 170 (shown inrepresentation 172-4 of the smartphone 172), a text query 190 of “TheHobbit XIII Movie Reviews” may have been provided as the query wrapper.In other words, instead of explicitly identifying movie reviews as aquery object and “The Hobbit XIII” as a context object, the query andthe context may be combined together in a single string for processingby the search system 120.

The state 170-3 depicts additional user interface options andpossibilities, including an “(installed)” indicator 192 for installedapplications. In addition, some results, such as a FANDANGO MOVIESapplication result 194 may include multiple application states. In thiscase, the application states are “The Hobbit XIII” 196 and “The HobbitXIII (Extended)” 198. A Sponsored App banner 199 demonstrates avariation on indicating sponsorship of an application.

Function—Entity Combination

In FIG. 6, examples are presented of how functions and entities arecombined to arrive at app states. A function of “Buy Tickets” 204-1 andan entity of “The Dark Knight Rises” 204-2 combine to create a state204-3 for buying tickets to “The Dark Knight Rises.” Similarly, afunction of “Get Ride” 208-1 and a location entity (such asWiFi-assisted GPS) of the device 208-2 combine to create a state 208-3for getting ride/taxi from present location. A function “Find Flight”212-1 combines with an entity “LAX” (Los Angeles Airport) 212-2 and anentity “SFO” (San Francisco Airport) 212-3 to create a state 212-4 forfinding a flight from LAX to SFO. Note that the entities 212-2 and 212-3in the final example may serve as either departure location or arrivallocation. If there is no indication of which entity is which, analternative state (finding a flight from SFO to LAX) is possible.

In FIG. 7, a function ontology 220 includes a number of branch nodes(such as video 224-1 and restaurants 224-2), which may representdifferent industry verticals. The function ontology 220 includes leafnodes (such as buy tickets 228-1, rent video 228-2, reviews 228-3, andshowtimes 228-4) that each correspond to a particular function offeredby one or more apps. Leaf nodes underneath the restaurants branch node224-2 include reviews 232-1, business info (such as hours and address)232-2, and reservations 232-3. Further branch nodes may be specified,such as a buy branch node 236 under which leaf nodes download 240-1 andstream 240-2 are specified. The rent leaf node 228-2 could be similarlyexpanded.

Each of the functions of the function ontology 220 may be accomplishedby a number of different apps. For example, video reviews 228-3 areavailable from, among many other sources, an IMDB app, a NETFLIX app,and a Google PLAY app. Access templates may be determined for thefunctions of each app. An information triplet—the app, the function theapp is to perform, and the entity for which the function will beperformed—specifies a state.

When this triplet is formatted as a URL (uniform resource locator), theURL may be termed a functional URL. Functional URLs may be used with aname space “func://” to differentiate the functional URL from a standardweb URL in the “http://” name space. Action templates define what typesand number of entities are required to specify a functional URL for agiven app function.

Examples of access templates for video reviews 228-3 are shown at 244-1,244-2, 244-3, and 244-4. The access template 244-1 for IMDb includes thename space, “func://”, an indication of the app, “www.imdb.com,” aseparator forward slash, an indication of the function to be performed,“movie reviews,” another separator forward slash, and then an indicatorof an entity type, which is a movie_id.

Therefore, in order to use the access template 244-1, a movie entitymust be identified. Further, as described in more detail below, theidentified movie entity must be applicable to IMDb. In general terms,this means that if the movie is not present in the IMDb app, the accesstemplate 244-1 will be irrelevant. In technical terms, when attemptingto create a state from the access template 244-1, there will be noIMDb-specific information for that entity with which to populate theaccess template 244-1.

In FIG. 8, a brief example of how a general (or canonical) entityrelates to app-specific information. App-specific entities 248-1 and248-2 are present in a data store of the search provider. They may beobtained from various data services as described in more detail below.The app-specific entity 248-1 for IMDb includes a hexadecimalidentification code (a fictitious ID is shown as an example only) andthe title used by IMDb. In addition, other information, such as reviews,actors, producers, etc., may be stored.

The app-specific entity 248-2 for Fandango includes an alphanumeric IDspecific to Fandango (a fictitious ID is shown as an example only), andincludes the title used by Fandango for the movie. Additionalinformation may also be stored.

A canonical entity 252 includes a canonical title, which in thisparticular case is the same as the titles for the app-specific entities248-1 and 248-2 differ. If the titles in the app-specific entities 248-1and 248-2, one would have to be chosen as the canonical title; or, acanonical title that differed from both may be used.

A canonical year is included, which may be the same as year informationstored in the app-specific entities 248-1 and 248-2. The canonicalentity 252 includes links to the app-specific entities 248-1 and 248-2.These links may be in the form of unique key values, such as might beused in a relational database. Additionally or alternatively, specificIDs that match the IDs used in the app-specific entities 248-1 and 248-2may be used to link the canonical entity 252 to the app-specificentities 248-1 and 248-2.

The canonical entity 252 may also include various metrics, such as apopularity score. This popularity score may be based on how popular thedescribed entity is from the various data sources relied upon and mayinclude information about how frequently the entity is selected whenpresented to the user. The popularity may be normalized to otherentities of the same type, in the same genre, etc.

In FIG. 9, an access URL mapping module 260 converts the functional URLs244 into corresponding access URLs 264-1, 264-2, 264-3, and 264-4,respectively. The mapping is performed using access templates, whichtake specific information and insert it into a parameterized URL. Accesstemplates are stored in an access templates data store 268. An entitydata store 272 stores information about entities, both canonical andapp-specific.

As an example only, if the “movie_id” of the functional URLs 244 was avalue corresponding to “Django Unchanged,” a 2012 film, the access URLmapping module 260 would produce the access URLs 264 shown in FIG. 9.Note that for the access URL 264-4, two app-specific values areretrieved from the entity data store 272: a Google-specific movie nameand a Google-specific movie ID. Similar to the association shown in FIG.8, all of the app-specific data used to create the access URLs 264 islinked to a single “Django Unchained” canonical entity. In otherimplementations, the canonical entity may simply have fields forapp-specific data, as opposed to links to distinct app-specificentities.

System

In FIG. 10, a high-level overview of the overall system is shown. An appdeveloper 300 interacts with a developer portal 304 when developing anapp (referred to as App A). The app developer 300 identifies whatexternal functionality is desired for App A and provides thisinformation to the developer portal 304. The app developer 300 may alsospecify limitations, such as apps that the app developer 300 does notwant to have shown to a user of App A.

The developer portal 304 provides code for App A that allows externalfunctionality to be incorporated into App A. A button associated withthis external functionality will cause App A to query a search system120. The developer portal 304 may provide parameters to the searchsystem 120 based on the decisions made by the app developer 300. In someimplementations, some or all of the decisions that the app developer 300makes are incorporated into the code provided by the developer portal304 to the app developer 300.

In other words, some data about App A may be known beforehand by thesearch system 120, while other data will be provided directly from AppA, such as via the query wrapper. As one example, the app developer 300may decide that App M should not be shown to users of App A and adds AppM to a blacklist. The developer portal 304 may provide the blacklist tothe search system 120 so that the search system 120 will return appsonly if those apps are not in the blacklist. Alternatively, the codeprovided by the developer portal 304, and that is integrated into App A,may provide the blacklist to the search system 120 while App A isrunning. In other implementations, App A may not provide any informationabout a blacklist to the search system 120 and instead filter theresults returned by the search system 120 to remove apps correspondingto the blacklist.

Once the app developer 300 receives the code from the developer portal304, the app developer 300 finalizes App A (which may include compilingand linking) and provides App A to a digital distribution platform 308.One example of the digital distribution platform 308 is the PLAY digitaldistribution platform by Google, Inc.

The developer portal 304 may provide code to the app developer 300 in avariety of forms. The code may be provided in plain text that can becopied and pasted into the coding platform used by the app developer300. The developer portal 304 may instead provide some or all of thecode in the form of a library (the SDK library), which may includeprecompiled object code and header files.

The SDK library may be associated with an API (Application ProgrammingInterface), and a definition of the API may be provided to the appdeveloper 300. In some implementations, the app developer 300 may use agraphical user interface on the developer portal 304 (such as a website)to automatically generate appropriate API calls. These API calls can beincluded in App A during its development. The developer portal 304 mayprovide visual user interface elements, such as buttons, for use by theapp developer 300.

Choices made by the app developer 300 during development of App A may befixed into the code received from the developer portal 304.Alternatively, the app developer 300 may be able to modify certainaspects of the code, such as by supplementing a blacklist. Once App A isprovided to the digital distribution platform 308, the code in App A maybe relatively fixed. Changes to App A may require a version update atthe digital distribution platform 308. As a result, post-distributionchanges, such as updating of blacklists, may instead be done using thedeveloper portal 304 and communicated to the search system 120.

When a user of the smartphone 104 installs and opens App A from thedigital distribution platform 308, a representative externalfunctionality button 312 will be present on some of the states of App A.The term “state” may refer to a screen of App A. If App A is a movieshowtimes app, each state may correspond to the showtimes of aparticular movie in a particular location. The external functionalitybutton 312 may be present in a template that applies across all of thestates of App A that show movie showtimes.

When a state is instantiated from the template, an action query isperformed to determine whether the action associated with the externalfunctionality button 312 is available or not. If not, the externalfunctionality button 312 may be hidden or otherwise indicated asinactive. In some implementations, the external functionality button 312does not appear different, but an expected response of the externalfunctionality button 312 to selection does not occur—for example, avisual effect appearing to be a physical movement into the screen is notperformed, making the external functionality button 312 appear fixed.

App A may have additional states, such as a movie listing that lists allcurrently playing movies according to geographical area, a theaterlisting that lists all theaters within the geographical area, etc. Theexternal functionality button 312 may be present in those states or maybe absent. Depending on the choices made by the app developer 300, otherexternal functionality buttons (not shown) may be present in those otherstates.

The app developer 300 may specify a template, or layout, for each typeof state of App A. For example, a first template may include twoexternal functionality buttons, such as are shown in FIG. 1 (“Tickets”and “Directions”), which are populated into any corresponding state ofApp A. For example, any state of App A that displays showtimes may beformatted using the first template. App A may include other states, suchas a form for providing feedback that a particular showtime is wrong orthat a movie theater is absent. These states may be created using atemplate that does not include the external functionality button 312.

When the user of the smartphone 104 actuates the external functionalitybutton 312, such as by touching the external functionality button 312, aquery wrapper is sent to the search system 120. The code provided by thedeveloper portal 304 may receive a parameter corresponding to thepresent state of App A. This parameter allows the query wrapper tospecify a desired specific state in any relevant apps. For example, thedeveloper of a movie showtimes app may choose to pass the name of amovie whose showtimes are presently being displayed to be part of thequery wrapper for a movie reviews function. For a directions function,the developer may choose to pass a name and/or address of a movietheatre to be part of the query wrapper. For a ticket-purchasingfunction, the developer may choose to pass a name of the movie theatreto be part of the query wrapper.

The search system 120 processes the query wrapper, as described in moredetail below, and returns a set of suitable apps or app states to thesmartphone 104. The results may be displayed within App A using codeprovided by the developer portal 304. In other implementations, thesmartphone 104 may include an app developed by an operator of the searchsystem 120. This search system app may display the suitable apps to theuser of the smartphone 104.

An advertiser portal 316 receives advertising requests from anadvertiser 320. The advertiser portal 316 may provide app sponsorshipopportunities to organizations that don't have accounts on the developerportal 304. In various implementations, the advertiser portal 316 mayreplace the sponsorship functionality of the developer portal 304 suchthat developers who want to promote their apps use the advertiser portal316 instead of the developer portal 304.

The advertiser portal 316 also provides an ability for the advertiser320 to promote an entity associated with a product or service ofinterest to the advertiser 320. For example, the advertiser 320 may setkeywords so that DENNY'S restaurant entities will be promoted ingeneral. The advertiser 320 may also specify specific states, such asthe states in the YELP app for Denny's entities, for promotion.

The advertiser 320 may also specify coupons that are available within anapp. For example, an advertiser 320 may contract with Yelp (eitherdirectly or through an advertising network) to cause a coupon to bedisplayed within Yelp for Denny's restaurants. The advertiser 320 maythen notify the advertiser portal 316 of the coupon so that resultstates in Yelp for Denny's can be shown with a coupon label. Theexistence of a coupon may be used as a factor by the search system 120when scoring app states, with app states having coupons receiving ahigher score.

Although FIG. 10 shows the effective flow of data between thecomponents, in reality, the app developer 300, the developer portal 304,the digital distribution platform 308, the smartphone 104, the searchsystem 120, the advertiser portal 316, and the advertiser 320 maycommunicate through a network 324. The network 324 may encompass localarea networks, mobile phone providers' proprietary networks, and adistributed communications network, such as the Internet.

Developer Portal User Interface

In FIG. 11, a simplified user interface for an example implementation ofthe developer portal 304 is shown. The app developer (referred to as AppDeveloper A) logs into the developer portal 304, which may be a website.Because of the sensitivity of app and monetization information, atwo-factor authentication protocol may be required for app developers.

App Developer A creates one or more app profiles in the developer portal304. Settings and data related to App A are shown at 404, and the appdeveloper 300 may be able to cycle through other apps using “Previous”and “Next” user interface elements 406-1 and 406-2. Global policies areshown at 408 and include monetization preferences 412 and a blocked list416 that apply to all of the developer's apps.

The monetization preferences 412 may include payment details for AppDeveloper A, including how App Developer A can provide money to thedeveloper portal 304 to obtain advertising as well as how the developerportal 304 can pay App Developer A for sponsored links being shown inthe apps associated with App Developer A. For example only, themonetization preferences 412 may include billing addresses and accountinformation for digital funds processing systems such as the PAYPALpayment platform. In implementations where use of the developer portal304 is not free, the monetization preferences 412 may also includeoptions for beginning or ending service, and options for changing thepayment schedule (for example, from monthly to annually).

The blocked list 416 includes a list of apps, app states, and/orentities that App Developer A does not want to have displayed in any ofthe apps for App Developer A. A “Choose” button 420 allows App DeveloperA to choose, from a list, which apps should be blocked. This list (notshown) may be searched, filtered, etc. Explicitly chosen apps for ablacklist are shown at 424. In addition, a “Manage Patterns” button 428may allow App Developer A to specify wildcard patterns that match appsnot to be presented to users of App Developer A's apps. For example, ifApp Developer A works for SAM'S CLUB WAREHOUSE CENTERS discountretailer, one specified pattern may correspond to the COSTCO discountretailer. The Costco pattern may include wildcards before and after“Costco” so that any Costco app is identified.

Although this discussion focuses on the titles of apps, blacklists mayalso be specified based on words in the description of an app, the nameof the developer of the app, etc. Further, specific entities, such asaddresses and names of competitors may be blacklisted. In addition,general blacklist criteria may specify that, for example, an appdownloaded fewer than a specified number of times should not be shown toa user. The manage patterns button 428 may allow App Developer A tospecify patterns using wildcards, regular expressions, etc. A firstspecified pattern followed by two apps that match that pattern are shownat 432. Similarly, a second pattern and four matching apps are shown at436.

In various other implementations, App Developer A may specify awhitelist of apps to display, where any apps not included in thewhitelist will not be presented to a user of App A. In otherimplementations, App Developer A may specify a preference list includingapps that are preferred: these apps are then emphasized (such as bymoving higher on the screen) when present in the result set. Thepreference list may be an ordered structure, such that an app appearinghigher in the preference list is to be given greater precedence than anapp appearing lower in the preference list.

In the app specific settings 404, a list of functions 440 identifieswhat external functionality will be available to App A. For example, thelisted functions within 440 may correspond to finding food, findingdriving directions, and finding movie reviews. An “Add” button 444allows a new function to be specified using a new/edit functioninterface 448. A list of available functions 452 may include functionsof interest identified by the developer portal 304 for variousverticals, such as movies, dining, travel, sports, etc. A filterinterface 456 allows the available functions to be filtered, such as byname, for easier identification of the desired function.

The available functions 452 are the leaf nodes of the function ontology(such as the function ontology 220 of FIG. 7). While shown as a list,the available functions 452 may be presented in a hierarchical outlineformat, or in a tree format (such as is shown in FIG. 7). Sub-branchesmay collapse into a branch node (that is, disappear from view) untilselection so that a full ontology can be displayed on a single viewingscreen.

A user interface options portion 464 allows App Developer A to specifyhow results for the selected function should be displayed. The optionsmay include specifying how many results are to be shown, what associatedinformation (such as starred ratings) should be shown, how the buttoncorresponding to the function should be displayed, and how sponsoredapps will be identified.

As one example, App Developer A may specify how many sponsored apps orentities should be shown in a results set. In another example, AppDeveloper A may be able to specify that only already-installed appsshould be shown to the user. App Developer A may also specify, such asby using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), the graphical presentation ofsearch results.

For example, in the user interface options portion 464, App Developer Amay specify a particular shape and size for a button, and may identifywhether logos or texts identifying the developer portal 304 (such as alogo of a provider of the developer portal 304) should be shown on thebutton. App Developer A may be able to specify in the user interfaceoptions portion 464 that App Developer A will create the button or otheruser interface element and that therefore the user interface elementdoes not need to be provided by the developer portal 304. Instead, thedeveloper portal 304 can provide the code for searching for thefunction, which will be called by whatever user interface element AppDeveloper A creates.

The user interface options portion 464 may also include settings used toadapt user interface elements when the corresponding action is notavailable. For example, settings 466 may allow user interface elementsto be hidden or grayed out when the corresponding action is unavailable.

A function-specific blocked list 468 allows App Developer A to blockapps and/or states specifically per function. For example, App DeveloperA may believe that a particular popular app does not provide a good userexperience for the particular function at issue. This app can thereforebe added to the function-specific blocked list 468.

A checkbox 470 indicates an intent of App Developer A to supplystate-specific data. For example, when a function such as movie reviewsis chosen, App Developer A may check the checkbox 470 to indicate thatinformation related to a movie entity will be included in the querywrapper for “Movie Reviews.”

A set of radio buttons 472 allows App Developer A to choose whether theentity (such as the movie) is identified to the search system by name(the name of the movie, for example), by number, or whether the identityof the entity should be inferred. When providing a name, the developerportal 304 provides App Developer A with an API call that includes aunique identifier of the desired function, as well as a parameter forproviding the name of the currently displayed movie.

The set of radio buttons 472 also includes the option to identify theentity by a prearranged ID. For this option, an entity mapping link 474is available. In order to send an entity ID to the search system, thesearch system needs to understand what that entity ID means. For theconvenience of the search system, App Developer A may retrieve all ofthe relevant entities from the search system and map the search systemIDs to the internal entities of the App A. In this way, App Developer Acan simply send the search system ID directly to the search system touniquely specify the correct entity.

To reduce the burden on App Developer A of storing the search system'sIDs, a mapping from entity IDs used by App A to entity IDs used by thesearch system can be created. Then App Developer A uses the internalentity IDs from App A, relying on the mapping to convert from theinternal App A entity ID to the search system entity ID. This mappingmay be stored within App A, or may be stored on the search system. Forthis option of the set of radio buttons 472, the developer portal 304may provide an API call that includes the selected function as well as aparameter for an entity ID.

Another option presented by the set of radio buttons 472 is for thesearch system to infer an entity. To reduce the burden on App DeveloperA still further, App Developer A can simply place a button having thedesired function onto every state of interest to App Developer A. Basedon the text displayed in that state, the search system can infer whatentity the function should be performed on. For example, a userinterface element created according to this option will, when selected,execute code that scrapes the text and potential image data from thedisplayed state. This data, which may first be parsed or analyzed withinthe app, is transmitted to the search system. The search system analyzesthe data and infers the correct entity. Referring back to FIG. 1, thefact that the text “The Hobbit XIII” appears near the top of the screenand is the only recognizable movie name would lead to the inference thatthe request for movie reviews was intended by the user to be made withrespect to the entity “The Hobbit XIII.”

When a function has been specified and/or edited, a “Done” button 476can be actuated by App Developer A. An app-specific blocked list 478allows App Developer A to block apps and/or states for all functionsspecified for App A. For example, App Developer A may develop apps for anumber of small companies. Each app may therefore correspond to adifferent company. Each company may have their own list of competitorsthat may be added to the app-specific blocked list 478.

A “Download” button 480 allows App Developer A to obtain the codenecessary to access the specified functions in the list of functions440. As discussed above, a customized SDK library may be downloaded inresponse to the “Download” button 480. Alternatively, a predeterminedSDK library may be downloaded that forms query wrappers and presentssearch results. This SDK library may be accessed using an API; API callscorresponding to the list of functions 440 may be downloaded for use inthe programming environment of App Developer A.

A software development kit (SDK) may be downloaded using the “Download”button 480. The SDK may integrate with the programming environment ofApp Developer A, such as an integrated development environment. The SDKmay duplicate or replace some of the features of the developer portal304, in one example resulting in an interface similar to that of FIG.12. The SDK may provide for one-click addition of a specified functionto a template or layout that App Developer A is creating.

With that single click, the SDK may place a user interface element, suchas a button, into a graphical form editor. The SDK may also create anappropriate API call to the SDK library that can send a query wrapperand receive app results. The SDK may also populate an entire new screen(state) of the application with graphical elements used for displayingapp results. In other implementations, the SDK may insert API calls thatwill allow App Developer A to query the results returned and format anddisplay the results in whatever manner App Developer A chooses.

The settings specified in the developer portal 304 may be reflected inthe parameters of the API calls, the downloaded code, a custom SDKlibrary, etc., provided by the developer portal 304. This code may thenbe integrated into App A and the code integrated into App A is solelyresponsible for providing relevant information to the search system 120.Alternatively, some data may be communicated by the developer portal 304to the search system 120. For example, the global policies 408 may beprovided to the search system 120. Then, whenever an app correspondingto App Developer A queries the search system 120, the search system 120is aware of, and operates according to, the global policies 408 set byApp Developer A.

App-specific policies may also be communicated to the search system 120.That way, when the search system 120 receives a query from App A, thesearch system 120 is aware of some or all of the parameters specified inthe developer portal 304 for App A. App Developer A may make changes inthe developer portal 304 subsequent to distributing App A. These changesmay be sent to the search system 120 to allow for the behavior ofexternal functionality buttons to be adapted over time without having tocreate a new version of App A in the digital distribution platform 308.

As mentioned above, some parameters may never be communicated to thesearch system 120 in some implementations. For example, certain blockedapps may be filtered out from received results within App A itself asopposed to being filtered out by the search system 120. This filteringmay be performed by code provided by the developer portal 304 andcustomized by, for example, the blocked list 416. Alternatively, thedeveloper portal 304 may provide instructions to App Developer A on howto perform the filtering using appropriate API calls to functions orlibraries provided by the developer portal 304.

In FIG. 12, one example of an implementation of the developer portal 304for use with a software development kit is shown. Global policies 408may still be specified using the developer portal 304 of FIG. 12.However, app-specific or function-specific parameters may be configuredusing the software development kit, which is downloaded at 490.

Instructions for using the software development kit may be displayed at494. Additional instructions and/or wizards, walkthroughs, and tutorialsmay be contained within the software development kit. The globalpolicies 408 may be communicated to the search system 120, whileapp-specific parameters are encoded into whatever app App Developer Acreates using the downloaded software development kit.

Query Wrapper Examples

FIG. 13, FIG. 14, and FIG. 15 show example contents of a query wrapper.In FIG. 13, a query wrapper 504 is encrypted with a public key of thesearch system 120. This public key may be provided to the App Developerusing the developer portal 304 as part of the code that generates thequery wrapper 504. By encrypting the query wrapper with the searchsystem's public key, only the search system, which is in possession ofthe corresponding private key, can decrypt the query wrapper 504. Thisprevents any man-in-the-middle eavesdropping of queries performed by theuser.

A query wrapper 504 includes a query object 504-1, which uniquelyidentifies a function from one or more functions ontology (such as thefunction ontology 220). A function identifier may be a binary oralphanumeric value, which may be fixed after selection of thecorresponding function within the developer portal 304. A context object504-2 includes an entity identifier. The entity identifier may include aplaintext name of an entity or may include an ID whose significance isprearranged between the developer and the search system 120.

At 504-3, a representation of installed apps is provided. For example,an exhaustive listing of all installed apps including titles and versionnumbers may be included. In some implementations, a bit field may bespecified for the one-hundred most popular apps. In other words, onehundred binary digits correspond to whether each of those apps isinstalled, with a zero indicating that the app is not installed and aone indicating that the app is installed. To allow for this shortenedbit field format, the set of apps must be pre-arranged. Although onehundred is used as an example, for efficient storage a power of two(such as 128) may be used.

Another mechanism for indicating installed apps using a limited numberof bits is a Bloom filter. The Bloom filter specifies whether an appfrom a predefined set of apps is possibly installed on the device orwhether the app is definitely not installed. To achieve storagecompression, the output of a Bloom filter does not definitively statethat a certain app is present; the Bloom filter output only definitivelystates whether certain apps are not present.

An installed accounts data structure 504-4 may report which accounts arepresent on the user device, and any relevant details about thoseaccounts that might be available. This may impact how relevant a resultis. For example, if the user has expressed an interest in streaming amovie, but their account on a particular service does not allowstreaming of that movie, the corresponding state may receive a reducedscore.

At 504-5, a blacklist is specified. This blacklist may supplement ablacklist already present in the search system 120 or may be astand-alone blacklist. The blacklist may list apps not to return basedon unique identifiers of those apps, which are known beforehand by thesearch system 120. The blacklist 504-5 may also list states and entitiesnot to include in results.

At 504-6, device info of the device transmitting the query wrapper 504may be included. This information may include the operating system andthe operating system version number, geolocation data for the device, anidentity of the app sending the query wrapper 504, an identity of theapp developer of the app, screen resolution, portrait/landscapeorientation, and sensor capability (precision of accelerometer, presenceof heart rate sensor, etc.).

The app or app developer identities may be used by the search system 120to apply pre-arranged parameters provided by the developer portal 304,such as a blacklist. The app identity may also be used by the searchsystem 120 to remove that app and related states from the results—inother words, to avoid returning a result that points back to the verysame app that sent the query wrapper 504.

In FIG. 14, a query wrapper 508 includes similar fields as the querywrapper 504. The exceptions depicted are with respect to a contextobject 508-2 and statistical text information 508-3. The context object508-2 is used when an entity is not being specifically identified by theapp developer. Therefore, the search system infers the entity ofinterest from the context of the state that triggered generation of thequery wrapper 508.

The context object 508-2 includes text from the state as well as textattributes. In addition, the context object 508-2 may include othervisual features, such as tables and images. The statistical textinformation 508-3 may include information gathered by the SDK libraryabout the relative frequency of certain terms and phrases. Terms orphrases that appear repeatedly or even universally across all states ofa certain type indicate that that text should not be relied upon toprovide identification of the correct entity. As described below, whenthe context object 508-2 includes all of the state text, this collectionand statistical analysis may be performed at the search system, whichmay reduce processing overhead on the user device, which may beconstrained by battery capacity.

In FIG. 15, a query wrapper 512 includes a plaintext string as a query512-1. The query wrapper 512 may also include indications of installedapps 512-2, installed accounts 512-3, and a blacklist 512-4. The querywrapper 512 may also include device info 512-5, such as that describedabove with respect to FIG. 13.

App State Result Examples

FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 depict example formats for app state results. Theapp state results may be provided as a file over any suitable protocol,such as HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) or FTP (file transferprotocol), or as an object sent over a higher level protocol such asSOAP (simple object access protocol). The app state results may bephysically transported across a network using multiple packets, frames,etc.

In FIG. 16, an app state results structure 550 includes an app list550-1. For example, the app list 550-1 may include an array of strings,each string storing an app name. The order of the array may generally befrom most relevant to least relevant, though the order may be adjustedbased on sponsorship. The number of apps provided in the app list 550-1may be chosen according to a resolution of the device sending the querywrapper. For example, a device with a larger screen and/or higherresolution may receive a larger number of apps. In addition, the numberof apps provided may be specified by the app developer using thedeveloper portal 304 or the software development kit.

An app state list 550-2 includes an array of pairs, where a first valueof each pair corresponds to an app state (which may be a title, such asfor THE FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant) and the second value of each paircorresponds to the associated app (such as for the YELP app).

An images field 550-3 may include encoded images, such as icons, foreach of the apps in the app list 550-1. In other implementations, theimages field 550-3 may include encoded images, such as screenshots, foreach of the app states in the app state list 550-2.

An app access links field 550-4 specifies access mechanisms for adefault state of each of the apps in the app list 550-1. For example,the access links may include commands to open the app if installedand/or links to a digital distribution platform to download an app thatis not installed. Another access mechanism may be a URL (uniformresource locator) to access a web-based app through a browser. When theapp state results structure 550 is returned, code within the app maydetermine whether open versus download is the appropriate action basedon the specific installation status of each app.

An app state access links field 550-5 specifies access mechanisms foreach of the app states in the app state list 550-2.

Additional metadata 550-6 may include a rating for each app (such as anumber of stars), a text description for each app, review text andmetrics (such as number of reviews), and a designation of sponsorship.The sponsorship designation may be a simple binary flag or may includean indication of sponsorship level. For example, a sponsor may bewilling to pay a greater amount for a new install than for an existingapp. This level of interest by the sponsor may allow the app to promotethe sponsored app more prominently in hopes of recognizing that revenue.

The additional metadata 550-6 may include download velocity (the numberof downloads over a recent time horizon) or other indicators of trendingpopularity of an app. A new and valuable app may not yet have a largeinstalled base, but may show rapid growth in number of downloads.Therefore, trending popularity may be used as a signal to rank thedisplay of apps, with trending apps moved higher up in a results list.Further, a visual indication of trending, such as text (“trending” or aword correlated with trending, such as “popular”) or an icon, may beshown in close proximity to an app for which a trending metric of theapp is above a threshold. The threshold may be an absolute threshold forall apps, or may be relative/normalized to the market segment in whichthe app exists or to the other apps in the results list.

An entity list field 550-7 includes a list of entities (such as a listof plaintext names) corresponding to the app state list in 550-2, and amapping of which app states correspond to which entities.

In FIG. 17, app state results 554 may include an HTML (hypertext markuplanguage) image map 554-1. The HTML image map 554-1 may be a singleimage, such as a JPEG (joint photographic experts group) or PNG(portable network graphics) image, divided into separate areas. Eacharea corresponds to an app or app state and shows text and/or iconscorresponding to that app or app state. When the HTML image map isactuated, the corresponding section of the image map activates acorresponding access mechanism for the app or state displayed in thatregion of the HTML image map 554-1.

The HTML image map 554-1 may be sized according to the size of therequesting device by the search system 120. In other implementations,multiple HTML image maps may be provided and an appropriate one may beselected at the device according to the resolution of the device'sscreen and the amount of real estate to be dedicated to the resultsdisplay. The search system 120 may create an HTML image map that willwork with a certain range of display sizes and resolutions, and if thespecified region for display is within that certain range, the HTMLimage map may be proportionally scaled by the device.

Action Query and Response

In FIG. 18, an example action query 570 includes a set of structures570-1, with each query object having one or more context objects.Installed apps 570-2 may be identified. For example only, apps known tobe paid-subscription-based are generally not good results for a userdevice unless the app is already installed. This relies on theassumption that if the user were paying for the subscription, then thecorresponding app would be installed.

Installed accounts 570-3 provide an even more accurate picture of whatactive services the user is already paying for. However, the accountsregistered with the operating system may be a small subset of the totalaccount credentials stored on any given user device across all of theapps.

A blacklist 570-4 may prevent actions from being identified as availableif the only action corresponds to an application or company that isundesirable to the developer crafting the action query 570. Device info570-5 may be included as discussed above with query wrappers.

In response to the action query 570, FIG. 19 shows an example actionresults response 580. The action results response 580 includes a set ofstructures 580-1 that includes one or more available actions (or anindication of no availability) for each query object. In variousimplementations, only query objects that have available actions arereturned. Therefore, if a requested query object does not appear, it canbe assumed that no corresponding action was available. Further, theaction results response 580 may be empty if no requested actions wereavailable for this entity.

Developer Portal

In FIG. 20, a high-level functional block diagram of an exampleimplementation of the developer portal 304 is shown. The developerportal 304 includes a user interface 600, which may be implemented as awebsite, for access by the app developer 300. A developer authenticationmodule 604 stores credentials for various developers and securelyauthenticates each developer to the developer portal 304. The developerauthentication module 604 may store credentials of app developers in adata store 608. Credentials are stored according to best practices, suchas by adding a cryptographic salt value and using PBKDF2 (Password-BasedKey Derivation Function 2).

An app blocking management module 612 allows for the formulation ofpatterns that match against apps desired to be blocked by the appdeveloper 300. The patterns and explicitly-selected apps to block arestored in the data store 608, and may have associated metadataindicating whether those apps are blocked for all apps of the developer,for a specific app of the developer, or for a specific function of oneor more apps. The entire list of apps available to be blocked may alsobe stored in the data store 608, and may be obtained from the searchsystem 120.

A search service communication module 616 may periodically update thedata store 608 based on the list of apps recognized by the search system120. User-specific data may be encrypted while stored in the data store608. In various implementations, general data, such as the list of apps,may be stored in unencrypted form.

An entity mapping module 618 provides entity data from the data store608 to the app developer 300 and/or provides entity data from the appdeveloper 300 to the data store 608. When the app developer 300 isproviding their own internal entity IDs, the entity mapping module 618may coordinate creation of a mapping between the entities of the appdeveloper 300 and the entities of the search system 120. Matching ofthese sets of entities is nontrivial and may require manual effort aswell as automated heuristic matching. In various implementations, aninitial mapping may be generated by the entity mapping module 618 andprovided to the app developer 300 for manual review and correction. Theentity mapping may then be provided via the search service communicationmodule 616 to the search system 120 so that developer specific entityIDs can be mapped to search system entity IDs.

An app management module 620 tracks various apps that each developer isworking on, including names and other parameters of each app. An appfunctionality management module 624 tracks what external functionalityis being used for each app. The app functionality management module 624stores a list of the functions used in each app in the data store 608.The app management module 620 stores a list of apps developed by the appdeveloper in the data store 608.

A user interface customization module 628 stores data controlling howeach function or app will appear as specified by the developer. This mayinclude graphical properties of a button, such as whether a shadow ispresent, whether a 3D effect is used, font, etc. In addition,preferences for labelling and presentation of sponsored apps may be setusing the user interface customization module 628 and stored in the datastore 608.

A monetization preferences module 632 stores monetization preferencesfor each app developer. In various implementations, monetizationpreferences may be different for each app of the app developer. An appdeveloper, or an advertiser working on behalf of an app developer, mayuse the monetization preferences module 632 to book promotion of theirapp, even if their app does not take advantage of the externalfunctionality features offered by the developer portal 304.

In other words, such developers can pay (according to, for example, costper impression, cost per click, or cost per install) to have their apppromoted by app developers who have implemented external functionalityusing the code offered by the developer portal 304. For this reason, thedeveloper portal 304 may also be referred to as an advertiser portal. Invarious implementations, the developer portal 304 may charge a developera fee (which may be assessed per app or per query sent to the searchsystem 120) to use the code and services from the developer portal 304.

A code generation module 636 generates code to be provided to the appdeveloper 300. This code may include a custom SDK library based on datafrom the app blocking management module 612, the app management module620, the app functionality management module 624, the user interfacecustomization module 628, and the monetization preferences module 632.The code generation module 636 may generate specific API calls toimplement the preferences of the app developer. The code generationmodule 636 may also provide a software development kit to the appdeveloper 300.

As preferences change in the data store 608, the search servicecommunication module 616 may update the search system 120 with theupdated preferences. In this way, the app developer may be able to alterwhich apps are blocked, which sponsored apps are shown, etc. for an appthat has already been distributed.

Advertiser Portal

In FIG. 21, a high-level functional block diagram of an exampleimplementation of the advertiser portal 316 is shown. The advertiserportal 316 includes a user interface 650, which may be implemented as awebsite, for access by the advertiser 320. An authentication module 654stores credential information for each advertiser into a data store 656and securely authenticates each advertiser to the advertiser portal 316.

An entity selection module 658 allows the advertiser 320 to selectstates for sponsorship. For example, in a restaurant context, theadvertiser 320 may set a bid price for the FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurantentity of the YELP app. The advertiser 320 may condition the bid priceon the French Laundry Yelp state being shown on a user device within afirst screen of state results, or may condition the bid price on theFrench Laundry Yelp state being selected by a user. Still further, theadvertiser 320 may condition the bid price on some further action by theuser, such as installation of the Yelp app or on redemption of a couponfor the French Laundry restaurant within the Yelp app. As anotherexample, the advertiser 320 may condition a bid price for the FrenchLaundry state of the OPENTABLE app on reservations being made throughthe OpenTable app.

The developer may define multiple campaigns, and associate differentselected states and bid prices with each campaign. Additional parametersmay be associated with each campaign. For example only, a campaign maybe limited to a specific operating system, such as Google's ANDROIDoperating system. A campaign may be limited by time of day, day of week,and by geolocation of the user's device. Settings for each campaign arestored in the data store 656.

The advertiser 320 may specify that an app state should be shown whensimilar apps or states are included in the consideration set. Thesimilarity may be explicitly specified by the advertiser—for example, bylisting apps and/or app states similar to the advertiser's app state. Inother implementations, the search system 120 may include a similarityassessment module (not shown) that assesses how similar two apps or appstates are to each other.

In various implementations, the advertiser may choose to have their appor app state shown when the search query includes certain keywords. Akeyword management module 662 allows the advertiser 320 to selectkeywords that will trigger a sponsored app or app state. The keywordsmay be triggered by language in a user device's search query, or basedon text associated with apps or app states that are being considered forpresentation to the user. The advertiser 320 identifies what sponsoredapp state should be included in search results when a keyword isdetected. The keyword settings for each campaign are stored in the datastore 656.

Keyword campaigns and state-based campaigns may be overlapping or may bedefined independently. For example, a sponsored state in the entityselection module 658 may be associated with a bid price, and the bidprice may be used in ranking the sponsored state when the search system120 is generating search results for a user device. Meanwhile, a keywordspecified in the keyword management module 662 may be used to triggerinclusion of an app or app state that was not already underconsideration for inclusion in search results. The advertiser mayspecify that a sponsorship should only be triggered by keyword in asituation where the advertiser does not want to pay to visuallyemphasize an app or app state that is already included in searchresults, but would be willing to pay for the app or app state to beincluded.

A coupon management module 666 allows the advertiser 320 to specifycoupons that are associated with a state. The existence of coupons maybe displayed on a user device at no cost to the advertiser 320 toprovide users of the search system 120 with as many promotionalopportunities as possible. Alternatively, the advertiser portal 316 maycharge the advertiser 320 for placing coupon information next to astate. For example only, the advertiser 320 may indicate to the couponmanagement module 666 that a coupon (such as “$10 Off Prix Fixe Menu onThursdays”) is offered by the FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant state of theYELP app. The advertiser portal 316 may then cause a coupon label to bedisplayed when the French Laundry state of the Yelp app is included insearch results.

A user interface customization module 670 receives, from the advertiser320, data controlling (or suggesting, depending on how sponsorship isprocessed by a user device) how sponsorship and coupons will appear, asspecified by the developer. This may include graphical properties of atext box or button, such as whether a shadow is present, whether a 3Deffect is used, font, etc.

A monetization preferences module 674 records monetization preferencesfor the advertiser 320 in the data store 656. The monetizationpreferences module 674 receives payment information for the advertiser320 and may also manage bid prices for sponsorships set using the entityselection module 658, the keyword management module 662, and the couponmanagement module 666.

A search service communication module 678 may periodically update thedata store 656 based on the list of apps and the list of app statesrecognized by the search system 120. The general data, such as the listof apps and app states, may be stored in unencrypted form. Meanwhile,any data specific to the advertiser 320 may be encrypted while in thedata store 656. As preferences change in the data store 656, the searchservice communication module 678 provides the updated preferences to thesearch system 120 for use in identifying and scoring apps and appstates.

Search System

FIG. 22 illustrates an example environment of the search system 120. Thesearch system 120 is a collection of computing devices that receivessearch queries from user devices via the network 324. Although shown inFIG. 1 as a smartphone 104, a user device can be any suitable usercomputing device, such as a tablet computing device, a laptop computingdevice, a gaming device, a vehicle infotainment device, a wearabledevice, or a smart appliance (such as a smart refrigerator or smarttelevision). In response to receiving a search query from the userdevice, the search system 120 generates search results based on thesearch query, as described in more detail below.

In some implementations, user devices communicate with the search system120 via a partner computing system (not illustrated). The partnercomputing system may be a computing system of a third party thatleverages the search functionality of the search system 120. The partnercomputing system may be owned by a company or organization other thanthe operator of the search system 120. Examples of such third partiesinclude Internet service providers, aggregated search portals, andmobile phone providers. The user devices may send search queries to thesearch system 120 and receive search results from the search system 120,all via the partner computing system. The partner computing system mayprovide a customized user interface to the user devices and/or maymodify the search experience provided on the user devices.

The example implementation of the search system 120 shown in FIG. 22includes a search module 700, which references entity data stored in theentity data store 272. The search module 700 references access templatesstored in the access templates data store 268. The data in the accesstemplates data store 268 and the entity data store 272 may be obtainedfrom data sources 708. The access templates data store 268 and theentity data store 272 may be maintained and updated by the search module700 and/or a maintenance component (not shown) of the search system 120.

The access templates data store 268 and the entity data store 272 may beupdated with databases, indices, tables, files, and other datastructures, which may be populated by the data sources 708. The entitydata store 272 may store application records, which may be in the formatshown in FIG. 23, and entity records, which may be in the format shownin FIG. 29. The access templates data store 268 may store accesstemplate records, which may be in the format shown in FIG. 27.

Parsers and other ETL (extract, transform, and load) processes may adaptdata from the data sources 708 for storage in the entity data store 272.In some implementations, data may be manually entered and/or manuallytransformed into a format usable by the entity data store 272. The datasources 708 may include data from application developers 708-1, such asapplication developers' websites and data feeds provided by developers.

The data sources 708 may include operators of digital distributionplatforms 708-2 configured to distribute native applications to userdevices. Example digital distribution platforms 708-2 include the GooglePLAY digital distribution platform by Google, Inc., the APP STOREdigital distribution platform by Apple, Inc. and WINDOWS PHONE store byMicrosoft Corp. The data sources 708 may also include other websites,such as blogs 708-3, application reviews websites 708-4, and socialnetworking sites 708-5, such as the FACEBOOK site by Facebook, Inc. andthe TWITTER site by Twitter, Inc.

The data sources 708 may also include online databases 708-6 of datarelated to movies, television programs, music, restaurants, etc. Each ofthe data sources 708 may have independent ontologies and may be updatedat different rates. Therefore, the entity data store 272 may be updatedfrom each of the data sources 708 at different rates. In addition,credibility and accuracy of data may differ across the data sources 708.Measures of reliability, timeliness, and accuracy may be stored in theentity data store 272 and may be used to weight search results obtainedfrom those data sources 708.

Application Records

In FIG. 23, an example format of an application record 800 includes anapplication name 800-1, an application identifier (ID) 800-2, andapplication attributes 800-3. The application record 800 generallyrepresents data that can be stored in the entity data store 272 for aspecific application. The entity data store 272 may include thousands ormillions of records having the structure specified by the applicationrecord 800. The application ID 800-2 uniquely identifies an applicationin the entity data store 272. The application ID 800-2 may be assignedby the search system 120 and may therefore be independent of any IDassigned by, for example, a digital distribution platform.

A single value for the application ID 800-2 may cover multipleapplication editions. The term “edition” applies to multiple versions ofa single app and may also apply to versions of that app released foralternative operating systems. For example only, Angry Birds (as shownin FIG. 24) may be available on Android and iOS mobile device platformsand, for each platform, may have a series of versions bug fixes arereleased and as the application is updated to take advantage of, and toadapt to, newer versions of operating system.

As shown in FIG. 24, an example application record 804 for an ANGRYBIRDS app includes a name 804-1 of “Angry Birds” and a unique ID 804-2expressed in hexadecimal as 0x3FF8D407. Attributes 804-3 for Angry Birdsmay include a name of the developer of Angry Birds, text reviews ofAngry Birds, a genre indicator for Angry Birds (such as “Games,” orsub-genre “Physics-Based Games”), ratings (such as star ratings) forAngry Birds, a textual description (which may be provided by thedeveloper), a number of downloads (which may be restricted to the mostrecent edition or could be for all editions), access mechanisms (how toopen Angry Birds when already installed or how to install Angry Birdswhen not yet installed), and device info (for example, minimumrequirements of operating system, hardware, and resolution for bestoperation).

The term “software application” can refer to a software product thatcauses a computing device to perform a function. In some examples, asoftware application may also be referred to as an “application,” an“app,” or a “program.” Software applications can perform a variety ofdifferent functions for a user. For example, a restaurant reservationapplication can make reservations for restaurants, and an Internet mediaplayer application can stream media (such as a song or movie) from theInternet.

In some examples, a single software application can provide more thanone function. For example, a restaurant reservation application may alsoallow a user to read user reviews for a restaurant in addition to makingreservations. As another example, an Internet media player applicationmay also allow a user to perform searches for digital media, purchasedigital media, generate media playlists, and share media playlists.

The functions of an application can be accessed using native applicationeditions of the software application and/or web application editions ofthe software application. A native application edition (or, “nativeapplication”) is, at least in part, installed on a user device. In somescenarios, a native application is installed on a user device, butaccesses an external resource (e.g., an application server) to obtaindata from the external resource. For example, social media applications,weather applications, news applications, and search applications mayrespectively be accessed by one or more native applications that executeon various user devices. In such examples, a native application canprovide data to and/or receive data from the external resource whileaccessing one or more functions of the software application.

In other scenarios, a native application is installed on the user deviceand does not access any external resources. For example, some gamingapplications, calendar applications, media player applications, anddocument viewing applications may not require a connection to a networkto perform a particular function. In these examples, the functionalityof the software product is encoded in the native application itself.

Web application editions (also referred to as “web applications”) of asoftware application may be partially implemented by a user device (suchas by a web browser executing on the user device) and partiallyimplemented by a remote computing device (such as a web server orapplication server). For example, a web application may be anapplication that is implemented, at least in part, by a web server andaccessed by a web browser native to the user device. Example webapplications include web-based email, online auctions websites,social-networking websites, travel booking websites, and online retailwebsites. A web application accesses functions of a software product viaa network. Example implementations of web applications include web pagesand HTML5 application editions.

When rendering a set of app search results, a user device displays a setof user-selectable links that can be selected by a user of the userdevice. A user-selectable link may include one or more underlying accessmechanisms. A user-selectable link, when selected by a user, causes theuser device to access a software application using an edition of thesoftware application identified by the access mechanism.

Examples of access mechanisms include application access mechanisms, webaccess mechanisms, application download addresses, and scripts. Anapplication access mechanism may be a string that includes a referenceto a native application and indicates one or more operations for theuser device to perform. If a user selects a user selectable linkincluding an application access mechanism, the user device may launchthe native application referenced in the application access mechanism.

In some implementations, any combination of the operating system of theuser device, a search application executed by the user device, a nativeapplication executed by the user device, and/or a web browser executedby the user device can launch the native application referenced in theapplication access mechanism. An application resource identifier is anexample application access mechanism.

A web access mechanism may be a string that includes a reference to aweb application edition of a software product, and indicates one or moreoperations for a web browser to execute. A web access mechanism may be aresource identifier that includes a reference to a web resource (e.g., apage of a web application/website). For example, a web access mechanismmay refer to a uniform resource locator (URL) used with hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP). If a user selects a user-selectable linkincluding a web access mechanism, the user device may launch a webbrowser application and may pass the resource identifier to the webbrowser.

An application download access mechanism may indicate a location (suchas a digital distribution platform) where a native application can bedownloaded in the scenario where a native application edition of theapplication is not installed on the user device. If a user selects auser-selectable link including an application download access mechanism,the user device may access a digital distribution platform from whichthe referenced native application edition may be downloaded. The usermay opt to download the native application edition. Upon installation,the user device may automatically launch the native application edition.

A script access mechanism is a set of instructions that, when executedby the user device, cause the user device to access a resource indicatedby the script. For example, the script may instruct an operating systemof the user device to launch a digital distribution platform interfaceapplication; browse to the specified native application within thedigital distribution platform interface application; install thespecified native application; and then open the specified nativeapplication.

Application State Records

In FIG. 25, an example format of an app state record 820 includes an appstate identifier (ID) 820-1, app state information 820-2, an appidentifier (ID) 820-3, and one or more access mechanisms 820-4. The appstate ID 820-1 may be used to uniquely identify the app state record 820in a search data store. The app state ID 820-1 may be a string ofalphabetic, numeric, and/or special (e.g., punctuation marks) charactersthat uniquely identifies the associated app state record 820. In someexamples, the app state ID 820-1 describes the application state in ahuman-readable form. For example, the app state ID 820-1 may include thename of the application referenced in the access mechanisms 820-4.

In a specific example, an app state ID 820-1 for an Internet musicplayer application may include the name of the Internet music playerapplication along with the song name that will be played when theInternet music player application is set into the specified state. Insome examples, the app state ID 820-1 is a string formatted similarly toa uniform resource locator (URL), which may include an identifier forthe application and an identifier of the state within the application.In other implementations, a URL used as the app state ID 820-1 mayinclude an identifier for the application, an identifier of an action tobe provided by the application, and an identifier of an entity that isthe target of the action.

For example only, see FIG. 26, which shows an example app state record824 associated with the OPENTABLE application from OpenTable, Inc. TheOPENTABLE application is a restaurant-reservation application thatallows users to search for restaurants, read reviews, and makerestaurant reservations. The example app state record 824 of FIG. 26describes an application state of the OPENTABLE application in which theOPENTABLE application accesses information for THE FRENCH LAUNDRYrestaurant, a Yountville, Calif. restaurant. An app state ID 824-1 forthe example app state record 824 is shown as “OpenTable—The FrenchLaundry.”

Another implementation of the displayed app state ID 824-1 is based on atriplet of information: {application, action, entity}. The triplet forthe app state record 824 may be {“OpenTable”, “Show Reviews”, “TheFrench Laundry”}. As mentioned above, this triplet may be formatted as aURL, such as the following:“func://www.OpenTable.com/Show_Reviews/The_French_Laundry.” Note that adifferent namespace is used (“func://”) to differentiate from thestandard web namespace (“http://”), as the URL-formatted ID may notresolve to an actual web page. For example only, the OpenTable websitemay use a numeric identifier for each restaurant in their web URLsinstead of the human-readable “The_French_Laundry.”

Continuing with FIG. 25, the app state information 820-2 may includedata that describes an app state into which an application is setaccording to the access mechanisms 820-4. The types of data included inthe app state information 820-2 may depend on the type of informationassociated with the app state and the functionality specified by theaccess mechanisms 820-4. The app state information 820-2 may include avariety of different types of data, such as structured, semi-structured,and/or unstructured data. The app state information 820-2 may beautomatically and/or manually generated and updated based on documentsretrieved from various data sources, which may include crawling of theapps themselves.

In some examples, the app state information 820-2 includes datapresented to a user by an application when in the app statecorresponding to the app state record 820. For example, if the app staterecord 820 is associated with a shopping application, the app stateinformation 820-2 may include data that describes products (such asnames and prices) that are shown in the app state corresponding to theapp state record 820. As another example, if the app state record 820 isassociated with a music player application, the app state information820-2 may include data that describes a song (such as by track name andartist) that is played or displayed when the music player application isset to the specified app state.

When the app state record 820 corresponds to a default state of anapplication, the app state information 820-2 may include informationgenerally relevant to the application and not to any particular appstate. For example, the app state information 820-2 may include the nameof the developer of the application, the publisher of the application, acategory (e.g., genre) of the application, a text description of theapplication (which may be specified by the application's developer), andthe price of the application. The app state information 820-2 may alsoinclude security or privacy data about the application, battery usage ofthe application, and bandwidth usage of the application. The app stateinformation 820-2 may also include application statistics, such asnumber of downloads, download rate (for example, average downloads permonth), download velocity (for example, number of downloads within thepast month as a percentage of total downloads), number of ratings, andnumber of reviews.

In FIG. 26, the example app state record 824 includes app stateinformation 824-2, including a restaurant category field 824-2 a of THEFRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant, a name and text description field 824-2 b ofTHE FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant, user reviews field 824-2 c of THE FRENCHLAUNDRY restaurant, and additional data fields 824-2 d.

The restaurant category field 824-2 a may include multiple categoriesunder which the restaurant is categorized, such as the text labels“French cuisine” and “contemporary.” The name and description field824-2 b may include the name of the restaurant (“The French Laundry”)and text that describes the restaurant. The user reviews field 824-2 cmay include text of user reviews for the restaurant. The additional datafields 824-2 d may include additional data for the restaurant that doesnot specifically fit within the other defined fields, such as a menu,prices, and operating hours.

Continuing with FIG. 25, the app ID 820-3 uniquely identifies anapplication associated with the app state record 820. For example, avalue for application ID 824-3 in the app state record 824 uniquelyidentifies the OpenTable application. The application ID 824-3 may referto a canonical OpenTable software product that encompasses all of theeditions of the OpenTable application, including all the native versionsof the OpenTable application across platforms (for example, IOS andANDROID operating systems) and any web editions of the OpenTableapplication.

The access mechanisms 820-4 specify one or more ways that the statespecified by the app state record 820 can be accessed. For any givenuser device, only some of the access mechanisms 820-4 may be relevant.For illustration, the example app state record 824 depicts three accessmechanisms 824-4, including access mechanism “a” 824-4 a, accessmechanism “b” 824-4 b, and access mechanism “c” 824-4 c.

For example, the access mechanism 820-4 a may include a reference to anative IOS operating system edition of the OPENTABLE application alongwith one or more operations to be performed by the user device. Forexample, the access mechanism 820-4 a may include an applicationresource identifier for the native iOS edition of the OPENTABLEapplication and one or more operations that navigate to the state in theOPENTABLE application for THE FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant.

The access mechanism 820-4 b may include a reference to a native ANDROIDoperating system edition of the OPENTABLE application along with one ormore operations to be performed by the user device to navigate to thestate in the ANDROID OPENTABLE application for THE FRENCH LAUNDRY. Theaccess mechanism 820-4 c may include a reference to a web edition of theOPENTABLE application, such as a URL that corresponds to a web page forTHE FRENCH LAUNDRY restaurant on the OPENTABLE web site.

Access Template Records

In FIG. 27, an example format of an access template record 840 includesan application ID 840-1, a function ID 840-2 (from a function ontology,such as the function ontology 220), and a list of parameter types 840-3input to the access template to generate an access mechanism 840-4.

In FIG. 28, an example access template record 844 is demonstrated inconformance with the format of FIG. 27. An application ID 844-1indicates “Google Play.” Note that the ID may in fact be something otherthan plaintext, such as a binary or alphanumeric sequence. A function ID844-2 indicates that the function is providing movie reviews. Again, thefunction ID 844-2 may simply be a prearranged unique identifier (such asbinary or alphanumeric) that is tied to a specific function in thefunction ontology.

Input parameter types 844-3 include a single input parameter, which isof type “movie ID.” This indicates that the example access templaterecord 844 can be used as long as a movie type of entity (which willhave a movie ID) has been established and the entity includesGoogle-specific data or a link to a Google-specific entity. An accessmechanism 844-4 provides a format to create an access URL with twoparameters. These two parameters may be looked up from a Google-specificentity linked to a canonical entity identified by the movie ID.

FIG. 30 and FIG. 31 show example entity records according to a formatshown in FIG. 29. The entity data store 272 includes data associatedwith a variety of different entities. The entity data store 272 mayinclude one or more databases, indices (e.g., inverted indices), files,or other data structures storing this data. The entity data store 272 ofthe present disclosure includes a variety of entity records. Each entityrecord includes data associated with a different entity. For example, anentity record may include data that is descriptive of an entity.

The term “entity” may generally refer to a noun (e.g., a person, animal,place, thing, or idea). Examples of entities may include, but are notlimited to, the movie named “The Lion King,” the soundtrack named “TheLion King,” the song named “Hey Jude,” and the book named “The Hobbit.”Although an entity often refers to a noun, an entity may include otherparts of speech (e.g., verbs, adjectives, etc.).

An entity record may be a data structure that includes an entity name,an entity type, and entity information. An entity name may include oneor more words, numbers, and/or symbols (e.g., punctuation marks). Insome examples, the entity name may refer to a noun, which denotes aperson, animal, place, thing, or idea.

In one example, the entity name of the entity record for The Lion Kingmovie may be “The Lion King.” In another example, the entity name of thesong Hey Jude may be “Hey Jude.” Although entity names may refer to anoun, entity names may also refer to other parts of speech, such asverbs, pronouns, adjectives, etc.

Each entity record may include an entity type that may indicate acategory in which the entity name and the entity information belongs.Put another way, the entity type may indicate a category in which thedata of the entity record belongs. An entity type may include one ormore words, numbers, and/or symbols (e.g., punctuation marks). An entitytype may be described by a noun in some examples. Example entity typesinclude, but are not limited to, a movie entity type, a music entitytype, a book entity type, and a game entity type.

In one example, an entity record having the entity name “The Lion King”may have an entity type “movie.” In this example, the entity type“movie” indicates that the entity record named “The Lion King” relatesto a movie. In another example, an entity record having the entity name“The Lion King Soundtrack” may have an entity type “music.” In thisexample, the entity type “music” indicates that the entity record named“The Lion King Soundtrack” relates to music.

Each entity record may include entity information. Entity informationmay refer to data included in the entity record in addition to theentity name and the entity type. Entity information may include varioustypes of data. For example, entity information may include structured,semi-structured, and/or unstructured data. Examples of different typesof data that may be included in entity information is described below.

Structured data in the entity information of an entity record mayinclude data that is associated with a defined data field. In someimplementations, the defined data fields may be tailored to the entitytype of the entity record. For example, entity information for an entityrecord having a movie entity type may include data fields for actor(s),director(s), and producer(s).

As another example, entity information for an entity record having amusic type may include data fields for an artist's name, track names,and track lengths. As another example, entity information for an entityrecord having a book type may include data fields for an author's name,a publisher, and a publication date.

Unstructured data in the entity information of an entity record mayinclude data that is not specifically associated with a defined datafield. Instead, unstructured data may be in free form, such as text fromwebsites, review articles, wiki articles, or other sources. For example,entity information for a movie entity type may include unstructureddata, such as critic reviews and plot summaries. As another example,entity information for a book entity type may include unstructured data,such as book synopses, book reviews, and passages from the book.

Semi-structured data in the entity information of an entity record mayrefer to data that at a broad level is associated with a data field, butthe data within the data field is provided in an unstructured manner.For example, data in the entity information may be broadly associatedwith a description data field, but text associated with the descriptiondata field may be considered unstructured at a more granular level. Inthe example of a book entity, semi-structured data may include asynopsis of a book chapter in a data field for that chapter of the book.In the example of a movie entity, semi-structured data may include moviereview text in a data field for movie reviews.

In some implementations, an entity record may also include an entityidentifier (ID) that identifies the entity record amongst the otherentity records included in the entity data store 272. For example, theentity ID may uniquely identify the entity record. The entity ID may bea string of alphabetic, numeric, and/or symbolic characters (e.g.,punctuation marks) that uniquely identify the entity record in which theentity ID is included.

In implementations of the entity data store 272 where different entityrecords have the same entity name, the entity ID and/or the entity typemay be used to differentiate the entity records. For example, the entityname “Beethoven” could be associated with a variety of different entityrecords such as an entity record having a music entity type, an entityrecord having a biographic book entity type, and an entity record havinga movie entity type. Though otherwise similar in name, the entity IDpermits differentiation between these “Beethoven” entity records.

The search system 120 retrieves entity data from various data sources708. The entity data retrieved from various data sources 708 can includeany type of data related to entity records described herein. Forexample, the entity data may include any data related to an entity name,an entity type, entity information, an entity quality score, and a listof associated applications.

The search system 120 is configured to generate and update the entitydata store 272 based on data retrieved from the data sources 708. Forexample, the search system 120 may use the retrieved data to update oneor more databases, indices, files, or other data structures included inthe entity data store 272. The search system 120 may generate new entityrecords and update existing entity records based on the data retrievedfrom the data sources 708. In some examples, some data included in theentity data store 272 may be manually generated.

Entity Records

FIG. 29 shows an example entity record 880 that may be included in theentity data store 272. The entity record 880 may generally representdata stored in the entity data store 272 that is related to an entity(e.g., a noun). It is contemplated that the data included in theillustrated entity record 880 could be stored and accessed in a varietyof different ways.

The entity data store 272 includes data related to a variety ofdifferent entities. Accordingly, the entity data store 272 may include avariety of entity records having a similar structure as the entityrecord 880. Put another way, the entity data store 272 may include avariety of entity records having an entity name 880-1, an entity ID880-2, an entity type 880-3, and entity information 880-4.

The entity name 880-1 may include one or more words, numbers, and/orsymbols (e.g., punctuation marks). In some examples, the entity name880-1 may denote a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. The entityrecord 880 includes an entity type 880-3 that indicates a category inwhich the data of the entity record 880 belongs. For example, the entitytype 880-3 indicates the category in which the entity name 880-1 and theentity information 880-4 belong. The entity type 880-3 may include oneor more words, numbers, and/or symbols (e.g., punctuation marks). Forexample, the entity type 880-3 may be a noun.

The entity record 880 includes an entity identifier 880-2 (i.e., “entityID 880-2”). The entity ID 880-2 may identify the entity record 880amongst the other entity records included in the entity data store 272.For example, the entity ID 880-2 may uniquely identify the entity record880. The entity ID 880-2 may be a string of alphabetic, numeric, and/orsymbolic characters (e.g., punctuation marks) that uniquely identify theentity record 880.

FIG. 30 and FIG. 31 show different example entity records 884, 888.Entity record 884 includes data related to the movie named “The DarkKnight Rises.” Entity record 888 includes data related to the comic booknamed “The Dark Knight Rises.” The entity names 884-1, 888-1 for theentity records 884, 888 include the names of the movie and the comicbook, respectively. In the example entity names 884-1, 888-1, the stopword “the” has been removed. The entity type “movie” of entity record884 indicates the category in which the entity name “Dark Knight Rises”and the entity information 884-4 belongs.

Put another way, the entity type “movie” of the entity record 884indicates that the entity name 884-1 and entity information 884-4included in the entity record 884 is related to a movie. The entity type“comic book” of entity record 888 indicates the category in which theentity name “Dark Knight Rises” and the entity information 888-4belongs. Put another way, the entity type “comic book” of the entityrecord 888 indicates that the entity name 888-1 and the entityinformation 888-4 included in the entity record 888 is related to acomic book.

The entity records 884, 888 include different entity IDs 884-2, 888-2.Specifically, entity records 884, 888 include entity IDs “ID#1” and“ID#2.” Entity IDs “ID#1” and “ID#2” represent different entity IDs thatmay uniquely identify entity records 884, 888, respectively. Forexample, “ID#1” and “ID#2” may represent different strings ofalphabetic, numeric, and/or symbolic characters that uniquely identifyentity records 884, 888 in the entity data store 272.

Referring back to FIG. 29, the entity record 880 includes entityinformation 880-4. The entity information 880-4 represents data in theentity record 880 in addition to the entity name 880-1 and the entitytype 880-3. In general, the entity information 880-4 may include anydata that is associated with either the entity name 880-1 or the entitytype 880-3. In some implementations, the data included in the entityinformation 880-4 may be data that is associated with both the entityname 880-1 and the entity type 880-3. Put another way, the data includedin the entity information 880-4 may be related to the entity name 880-1and included in a category described by the entity type 880-3.

The entity information 880-4 may include various types of data (e.g.,structured, semi-structured, and/or unstructured data). Structured datain the entity information 880-4 may refer to data included in a defineddata field. Semi-structured data in the entity information 880-4 mayrefer to data that at a broad level is associated with a data field, butthe data within the data field is provided in an unstructured manner.Unstructured data in the entity information 880-4 may include data thatis not specifically associated with a defined data field.

The entity information 880-4 may include data that is associated with adefined data field. In some examples, the defined data fields may betailored to the entity type 880-3 of the entity record 880. For example,entity records having a first entity type may include a first set ofdata fields associated with the first entity type. Entity records havinga second entity type that is different than the first entity type mayinclude a second set of data fields associated with the second entitytype that are different than the first set of data fields. In otherexamples, the entity records included in the entity data store 272 mayhave similar data fields, even when the entity records include differententity types.

The entity information 880-4 may include any type of data related to anentity, including, but not limited to, numbers or other statisticsrelated to the entity, names, dates, text from websites, reviewarticles, wiki articles, or other type of data. For example, if theentity type 880-3 is “movie,” then the entity information 880-4 mayinclude data fields for actor(s), director(s), producer(s), review(s),and plot summaries.

As another example, if the entity type 880-3 is “music,” then the entityinformation 880-4 may include data fields for an artist's name, tracknames, and track lengths. As another example, if the entity type 880-3is “book,” then the entity information 880-4 may include data fields foran author's name, a publisher, and a publication date.

FIG. 30 and FIG. 31 show examples of entity information 884-4, 888-4included in entity records 884, 888. The entity information 884-4included in entity record 884 is related to the movie named “The DarkKnight Rises.” The entity information 888-4 included in entity record888 is related to the comic book named “The Dark Knight Rises.” Theentity information 884-4 includes data fields related to a movie, suchas a list of actors, a director, reviews, and a plot summary. The entityinformation 888-4 includes data fields related to a comic book, such asone or more authors, one or more artists, a publication date, and comicbook reviews.

The data fields illustrated in the entity information 884-4, 888-4 ofFIG. 30 and FIG. 31 are only example data fields that may be included inentity information. It is contemplated that entity information 884-4,888-4 may include additional data fields not illustrated in FIG. 30 andFIG. 31. In some examples, the entity information 884-4, 888-4 may notinclude some or all of the data fields illustrated in FIG. 30 and FIG.31.

The different data fields included in the entity information 884-4,888-4 of entity records 884, 888 illustrate how different entity recordsmay include different data fields. The different data fields included inthe entity information 884-4, 888-4 of entity records 884, 888 alsoillustrate how the data fields included in entity records may be relatedto the entity type of the entity record. For example, entity record 884having a “movie” entity type may include data fields related to a movie,such as a list of actors and a director. Similarly, the entity record888 having a “comic book” entity type may include data fields related toa comic book, such as author(s) and artist(s). Some data fields that arespecific to an entity type may not be as meaningful in an entity recordhaving a different entity type. For example, a data field for a list ofactors may not be meaningful in an entity record having a “comic book”entity type.

Entity-Based Search Module

In FIG. 32, an example implementation of the search module 700 includesa query understanding pipeline 904 that identifies relevant entitiesfrom the context object and query object of the query wrapper. An entityrestriction module 908 receives the query object and, based on thespecified function ID, identifies entities within the entity data store704 that are capable of being used in a functional URL for the specifiedfunction. This subset of entities is provided to entity identificationmodule 912, which identifies one or more entity records from the subsetof entity records in response to scored terms from a tokenization andscoring module 916.

The tokenization and scoring module 916 receives the context object,which includes text from the state of the app that triggered thetransmission of the query wrapper. The tokenization and scoring module916 receives not just text but also text attributes, such as font, fontsize, emphasis (bold, underline, italics, color, etc.), proximity to topof page, etc. Further, tags such as HTML (hypertext markup language) orXML (extensible markup language) tags, may indicate the importance of aterm. For example, a tag may identify a term or phrase as a heading or asub-heading. Each of the above characteristics is a clue as to therelevance of a particular term. The tokenization and scoring module 916may generate initial scores for a set of terms extracted from the textprovided in the context object.

A common language recognition module 920 may track language that is usedin each type of state received from each app that includes the SDKlibrary. Language that is common to many states of a single type isunlikely to be helpful in defining the entity of interest. The commonlanguage recognition module 920 may therefore provide an indication ofwhich received terms are relatively common, which would decrease theirscore in the token recognition and scoring module 916.

The entity identification module 912 may select entity records from theentity restriction module 908 by detecting matches or near matchesbetween terms from the token recognition and scoring module 916 andterms in the entity record, such as entity name, entity type, and entityinformation. The entity identification module 912 may attempt toidentify entities corresponding to terms that received the highestscores from the token recognition and scoring module 916, and search forentities corresponding to the lower-scoring terms only when entitiescorresponding to the higher-scoring terms are not found.

Entities identified by the entity identification module 912 are providedto a functional URL consideration set generation module 924, whichincludes a type and application matching module 928 and a functionmatching module 932. The type and application matching module 928determines which access templates are relevant based on the type ofentities provided by the entity identification module 912.

The function matching module 932 receives the query object and selects asubset of access templates from the access template store 706 thatcorrespond to the specified function in the function ontology. Thissubset of access templates is provided to the type and applicationmatching module 928. For access templates that can be satisfied by theentities provided by the entity identification module 912, the type andapplication matching module 928 determines whether, for each of the typematched access template, any application-specific information is presentfor the corresponding entities.

When both the type and the application-specific data match betweenprovided entities and one of the access templates from the functionmatching module 932, a functional URL is created. The functional URL maybe associated with a score, which may be based at least in part on thescore from the token recognition and scoring module 916. The type andapplication matching module 928 outputs ordered sets of application,function, and entity (which may be expressed in the form of a functionalURL) to a scoring module 936.

The scoring module 936 reviews the provided scores and may adjust thescores based on data from a developer portal module 940 and asponsorship module 944. An access URL mapping module 948 generatesaccess URLs for the functional URLs with the highest scores from thescoring module 936. Based on the access templates from the accesstemplates data store 268 and application-specific information from theentity data store 272, the access URL mapping module 948 produces accessURLs. As one example only, see FIG. 9. The resulting access URLs arereturned, as part of the result set, to the user device.

The developer portal module 940 receives data from the developer portal304, such as blacklists, and may force a score to zero for anyfunctional URL that is matched by the blacklist. The developer portalmodule 940 may also specify other parameters to the scoring module 936,such as to exclude any application records and application state recordstied to the application that transmitted the query wrapper; this avoidsreturning self-referential results.

The sponsorship module 944 communicates with the advertiser portal 316and may increase scores for functional URLs meeting sponsorshipcriteria. In other implementations, the sponsorship module 944 mayinstruct the scoring module 936 to include a functional URL as asponsored result regardless of the score assigned to the functional URL.The sponsorship module 944 may also label functional URLs with asponsorship designation, which may be visually displayed to a user.

The sponsorship module 944 may also identify functional URLs thatcorrespond to coupons and can provide the coupon information to the uservia the scoring module 936. The sponsorship module 944 may operateaccording to a variety of targeting parameters, which may be specifiedby an advertiser, such as by using the advertiser portal 316. Forexample, the advertiser may desire to have their app shown when similarapps are included in the result set.

The similarity may be explicitly specified by the advertiser—forexample, by listing apps similar to the advertiser's app. In otherimplementations, the search system 120 may include a similarityassessment module (not shown) that assesses how similar two apps are toeach other. The similarity assessment module may determine thesimilarity between each of the apps in the consideration set with eachof the potential sponsored apps. In various implementations, theadvertiser may choose to have their app shown when the search queryincludes certain keywords.

The sponsorship module 944 may take into account whether a sponsored appis already installed on the user device from which the query wrapper wasreceived. An advertiser may only be willing to pay a reduced price (oreven nothing) to promote their app if their app is already installed onthe user device.

The sponsorship module 944 may select sponsored apps based on bid pricesset by advertisers. An advertiser may set different bid prices topromote their app based on, for example, whether their app is alreadyinstalled, how similar their app is to other apps in the result set,etc. The sponsorship module 944 may choose, for inclusion in the orderedsearch results, apps having the highest bid prices for the presentsearch.

An action availability module 952 identifies functional URLs provided tothe scoring module 936 and determines which actions are available. Theavailable actions can be returned as action results. However, in variousimplementations, the action availability module 952 may receive furtherinput from the scoring module 936. For example, a functional URL withtoo low a score may prevent the action from being reported as anavailable action. The low score may be as a result of the functional URLbeing a weak match, or another factor, such as the result beingdeprecated by the developer portal module 940.

Text-Based Search Module

In FIG. 33, an example implementation of the search system 120 includesa search module 980. The search module 980 includes a query analysismodule 984 that receives a query wrapper, such as the query wrapper 116of FIG. 1. The query analysis module 984 analyzes the text query fromthe query wrapper. For example, the query analysis module 984 maytokenize the query text, filter the query text, and perform wordstemming, synonymization, and stop word removal. The query analysismodule 984 may also analyze additional data stored within the querywrapper. The query analysis module 984 provides the tokenized query to aset generation module 988.

The set generation module 988 identifies a consideration set ofapplication state records from a search data store 990 based on thequery tokens. Application (equivalently, app) state records aredescribed in more detail in FIG. 25 and FIG. 26. In variousimplementations, the search data store 990 may also include app records.In various implementations, an app record may be stored as an app staterecord that simply has a predetermined value, such as null, for thespecific state of the app.

App state records in the search data store 990 may be generated bycrawling and scraping apps according to the principles of the presentdisclosure. Some or all of the contents of the records of the searchdata store 990 may be indexed in inverted indices. In someimplementations, the set generation module 988 uses the APACHE LUCENEsoftware library by the Apache Software Foundation to identify recordsfrom the inverted indices. The set generation module 988 may search theinverted indices to identify records containing one or more querytokens. As the set generation module 988 identifies matching records,the set generation module 988 can include the unique ID of eachidentified record in the consideration set. For example, the setgeneration module 988 may compare query terms to an app state name andapp attributes (such as a text description and user reviews) of an appstate record.

Further, in some implementations, the set generation module 988 maydetermine an initial score of the record with respect to the searchquery. The initial score may indicate how well the contents of therecord matched the query. For example, the initial score may be afunction of term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) values ofthe respective query terms.

A set processing module 992 receives unique IDs of app state recordsidentified by the set generation module 988 and determines a resultscore for some or all of the IDs. A result score indicates the relevanceof an app state with respect to the tokenized query and contextparameters. In various implementations, a higher score indicates agreater perceived relevance.

For example, other items in the query wrapper may act as contextparameters. Geolocation data may limit the score of (or simply removealtogether) apps that are not pertinent to the location of the userdevice. A blacklist in the query wrapper may cause the set processingmodule 992 to remove app records and/or app state records from theconsideration set that match the criteria in the blacklist, or to settheir score to a null value, such as zero.

The set processing module 992 may generate a result score based on oneor more scoring features, such as record scoring features, query scoringfeatures, and record-query scoring features. Example record scoringfeatures may be based on measurements associated with the record, suchas how often the record is retrieved during searches and how often linksgenerated based on the record are selected by a user. Query scoringfeatures may include, but are not limited to, the number of words in thesearch query, the popularity of the search query, and the expectedfrequency of the words in the search query. Record-query scoringfeatures may include parameters that indicate how well the terms of thesearch query match the terms of the record indicated by thecorresponding ID.

The set processing module 992 may include one or more machine-learnedmodels (such as a supervised learning model) configured to receive oneor more scoring features. The one or more machine-learned models maygenerate result scores based on at least one of the record scoringfeatures, the query scoring features, and the record-query scoringfeatures.

For example, the set processing module 992 may pair the search querywith each app state ID and calculate a vector of features for each{query, ID} pair. The vector of features may include one or more recordscoring features, one or more query scoring features, and one or morerecord-query scoring features. In some implementations, the setprocessing module 992 normalizes the scoring features in the featurevector. The set processing module 992 can set non-pertinent features toa null value or zero.

The set processing module 992 may then input the feature vector for oneof the app state IDs into a machine-learned regression model tocalculate a result score for the ID. In some examples, themachine-learned regression model may include a set of decision trees(such as gradient-boosted decision trees). Additionally oralternatively, the machine-learned regression model may include alogistic probability formula. In some implementations, themachine-learned task can be framed as a semi-supervised learning task,where a minority of the training data is labeled with human-curatedscores and the rest are used without human labels.

The machine-learned model outputs a result score of the ID. The setprocessing module 992 can calculate result scores for each of the IDsthat the set processing module 992 receives. The set processing module992 associates the result scores with the respective IDs and outputs themost relevant scored IDs.

A results generation module 996 may choose specific access mechanismsfrom the application records and app state records chosen by the setprocessing module 992. The results generation module 996 then prepares aresults set to return to the user device. Although called “app stateresults” here, some of the access mechanisms may correspond to a defaultstate (such as a home page) of an app—these may be a special case of anapp state record or may be an app record.

The results generation module 996 may select an access mechanism for anapp state record based on whether the app is installed on the device. Ifthe app is installed, an access mechanism that opens the app directly tothe specified state is selected. Meanwhile, if the app is not installed,a selected access mechanism first downloads and installs the app, suchas via a script, before opening the app to the specified state. Openingthe app to the specified state may include a single command or datastructure (such as an intent in the ANDROID operating system) thatdirectly actuates the specified state. For other apps, a script or othersequence may be used to open the app to a certain state (such as a home,or default, state) and then navigate to the specified state.

The results generation module 996 may generate or modify accessmechanisms based on the operating system identity and version for theuser device to which the results are being transmitted. For example, ascript to download, install, open, and navigate to a designated statemay be fully formed for a specific operating system by the resultsgeneration module 996.

If the results generation module 996 determines that none of the nativeaccess mechanisms are likely to be compatible with the user device, thesearch module 980 may send a web access mechanism to the user device. Ifno web access mechanism is available, or would be incompatible with theuser device for some reason (for example, if the web access mechanismrelies on the JAVA programming language, which is not installed on theuser device), the results generation module 996 may omit the result.

An action availability module 998 identifies functional URLs from theconsideration set and determines which actions are available. Theavailable actions can be returned as action results. However, in variousimplementations, the action availability module 998 may receive furtherinput from the set processing module 992. For example, a functional URLwith too low a score may prevent the action from being reported as anavailable action. The low score may be as a result of the functional URLbeing a weak match. In various other implementations, input from thedeveloper portal may also impact the score of a functional URL.

Software Development Kit

In FIG. 34, an example implementation of a software object (referred toas SDK library 1000) provided by the developer portal 304 is shown. Aquery wrapper module 1004 is triggered by an app state 1012 of thedeveloper's app being instantiated from an app state template. Thedeveloper extended the functionality of the app state 1012 (or, moreaccurately, the app state template from which the app state 1012 isinstantiated) with a user interface element 1008. As described above,the user interface element 1008 may be a button, such as a “MovieReviews” button or a “Get Directions” button.

When the query wrapper module 1004 is triggered, a text extractionmodule 1014 scrapes text and formatting from the app state 1012. Atokenization and scoring module 1016 may be implemented in addition to,or in place of, the tokenization and scoring module 916 of the searchmodule 700 (see FIG. 32). Similarly, a common language recognitionmodule 1020 may also be provided in some implementations in place of, orin addition to, the common language recognition module 920 of FIG. 32.The text and formatting of the text extraction module 1014, or thescored tokens from the tokenization and scoring module 1016, areincorporated into the query wrapper module 1004.

In other implementations, the developer may simply provide informationabout the entity from the app state 1012 to the query wrapper module1004.

An account recognition module 1024 identifies active user accounts onthe user device. For example, an account with a streaming video operatormay indicate that some or all movies from that provider can be streamedas part of the existing subscription service. The account recognitionmodule 1024 provides this account data to the query wrapper module 1004.This account data may be used by the search system 120 to score results,with results able to be serviced by existing subscriptions ranked higherthan results that would require an additional subscription.

An installed applications module 1028 provides information on installedapplications to the query wrapper module 1004. Similar to accounts, theinstalled applications allow the search system 120 to adjust scores,such as by raising scores of applications already installed andidentifying promotion opportunities for applications not yet installed.

A designated function store 1032 stores an identifier of the function orfunctions designated by the developer during interaction with thedeveloper portal 304. The designated functions are from the functionontology (such as the function ontology 220) and have specificidentifiers known to the search system 120. The identifiers may bedifferent for each app state template in the app. The query wrappermodule 1004 combines the data provided and provides the data to anaction query module 1036 and an app state query module 1040.

The action query module 1036 sends an action query to the search system120 using a search system communication module 1044. The action resultsreturned by the search system 120 are returned to the action querymodule 1036 and are then passed to a user interface adaptation module1048. The user interface adaptation module 1048 may alter the appearanceof the user interface element 1008 or hide the user interface element1008 altogether if the action response indicates that no actioncorresponding to the user interface element 1008 is available.

Once instantiation of the app state 1012 completes, user actuation ofthe user interface element 1008 triggers the app state query module 1040to request app state results from the search system 120 via the searchsystem communication module 1044. When multiple actions are associatedwith the user interface element 1008, the trigger may indicate whichaction the user chose. When results are received, the search systemcommunication module 1044 provides the results to a results presentationmodule 1052. If any of the results are selected by a user, an accessmechanism module 1056 enacts the specified access mechanism from theresults. For example, this may include launching a web browser, openingan application, or opening a digital distribution platform applicationto allow a desired application to be installed.

Flowcharts

In FIG. 35A and FIG. 35B, an overall operational flowchart begins at1104 where an app developer creates an account on the developer portal,creates a profile for a first app (App A), and selects externalfunctionality for the developer portal to introduce into App A. At 1112,the developer portal provides the SDK library and search interfaceelements to the developer for incorporation into App A.

At 1114, the developer inserts user interface elements at desiredlocations within states of App A and selectively links state-specificdata to search interface elements. For example, the developer may supplya text title of a state to a search interface element in that state. Asanother example, for a search interface element adjacent to a movietheatre, the developer may supply a name and/or address of the movietheatre to the search interface element for formation of a query.

At 1116, the app developer builds App A with the provided code. At 1120,the app developer distributes App A over a digital distributionplatform. Once App A is available on the digital distribution platform,a user can install and run App A at 1124. At 1128, control determineswhether the current screen of App 1 includes a search interface element,such as an external functionality button. If so, control transfers to1184; otherwise, control remains at 1128.

At 1184, control prepares an action query based on the action or actionscorresponding to the search interface element and the entity relating tothe current state. In various implementations, there may be multiplesearch interface elements, each with one or more specified actions. Inaddition, each search interface element may relate to a differententity.

The action query is prepared with each of the actions and each of thecorresponding entities for all of the search interface elements of thecurrent state. In other implementations, search interface elements thatare within the present state but not presently visible (for example,requiring the user to scroll down) may initially be omitted from theaction query. These search interface elements can be queried later ifthe user performs a scrolling operation.

Control continues at 1186, where control sends the action query to thesearch system. At 1188, control receives the action results from thesearch system. The action results indicate which of the specifiedactions are available with respect to the specified entities. At 1190,control determines whether the action results indicate that there areany available actions for the search interface element. If so, controltransfers to 1192. Otherwise, control transfers to 1194. When there aremultiple search interface elements, the determination of 1190 may beperformed separately for each of the search interface elements.

At 1194, control visually indicates deactivation of the search interfaceelement because there are no actions available for that search interfaceelement. Deactivation may include graying out, ghosting, flattening,etc. or may involve hiding the search interface element altogether.Control then continues at 1196.

At 1192, control waits for the user to select the search interfaceelement. Once the search interface element is selected, controltransfers to 1136 in FIG. 35B. Otherwise, control continues at 1196. At1196, control determines when the user has navigated to a new state inApp A. Once the user has navigated to a new state, control returns to1128; otherwise, control returns to 1192.

At 1136 in FIG. 35B, the SDK library in App A gathers data includinggeolocation, apps installed on the device, a version of the operatingsystem installed on the device, etc. The SDK library may also gatherstate-specific data, such as a title of a present state or informationidentifying a relevant entity (such as the name of a movie or the nameof a movie theatre). Further, when the search system 120 will beinferring the entity from the context of the state, the SDK library willinclude some or all of the text and accompanying attributes in the querywrapper. At 1140, the SDK library, based on the gathered data, assemblesa query wrapper.

At 1144, an optional decision is made. In certain circumstances, adeveloper may prefer to hand off presentation of search results to anapp operated by the developer portal or by the search system. If this isdesired by the developer, the decision at 1144 will transfer to 1148when the search-system-specific app is present on the device. If thesearch-system-specific app is not present on the device, or if thedeveloper of App A does not wish to hand off the results presentation tothe search-system-specific app, control continues at 1152.

At 1148, the search-system-specific app sends the query wrapper to thesearch system and at 1156 the search system returns app results. At1160, the search-system-specific app parses the results and displays theresults to the user. Control then continues at 1164.

At 1164, if the user selects one of the links in the result listing,control transfers to 1166; otherwise, if the user exits from the resultlisting, control transfers to 1196 of FIG. 35A. At 1166, controldetermines whether the app referenced by the link is already installed.If so, control transfers to 1170; otherwise, control transfers to 1168.

At 1168, control downloads the app and continues at 1170. The downloadof the app may be performed as specified by an access mechanismcorresponding to the specified link. At 1170, control opens the selectedapp and navigates to the specified state, as directed by the accessmechanism. Control continues at 1172, where if the user returns to App Afrom this newly opened app, control transfers to 1196 of FIG. 35A;otherwise, control remains at 1172.

Returning to 1152, the SDK library embedded in App A sends the querywrapper to a predefined search system, which may be specified by a fullyqualified domain name or one or more IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.At 1176, the search system returns app results. At 1180, the SDK libraryparses and displays the results from the search system to the user. Asdiscussed above, the search results may be adjusted based on which appsare already installed—for example, filtering out states of apps not yetinstalled. In addition, states may be filtered out when accountinformation indicates that the state will not provide the desiredfunctionality to the user. For example, if a state corresponding tostreaming a movie was returned, but the movie is not included within theuser's subscription, the corresponding state may be moved down in therankings or removed altogether. Control then continues at 1164.

In FIG. 36, example operation of a developer portal begins at 1204,where a graphical user interface is presented, such as by hosting awebsite. Control continues at 1208, where if a new user is detected,control creates a user account at 1212 and returns to 1204. If anexisting user is detected, control transfers to 1216, where uponsuccessful user authentication, control transfers to 1220. If the userdoes not successfully authenticate, control transfers to 1224. At 1224,a security policy is applied to the failed authentication.

For example only, the security policy may include exponentiallyincreasing a time that the user has to wait before attempting toauthenticate again. In addition, the security policy may include a setnumber of unsuccessful attempts before the user is prevented fromlogging in without manual intervention at the developer portal. Further,unsuccessful authentication may be logged and may be communicated to apredetermined email address of the user.

At 1220, control allows selection from among the developers' apps. At1228, if a new app is indicated by the developer, control transfers to1232; otherwise, control transfers to 1236. At 1232, control creates anew app record for that developer and control returns to 1220. At 1236,control determines whether the developer has indicated that generalsettings should be edited. If so, control transfers to 1240, wheresettings are presented for editing. These settings may include a globalblacklist, monetization policies, etc.

Control then returns to 1220. If, at 1236, the developer has notindicated that general settings should be edited, control transfers to1244. At 1244, control determines whether the developer has indicatedthat data corresponding to an app should be edited. If so, controltransfers to 1248; otherwise, control transfers to 1252. At 1248,control allows for selection of supplemental functions, which indicateexternal functionality that the developer wants to introduce to theirapp. In addition, settings for already selected functions may bechanged, such as function-specific blocked apps and user interfaceoptions. Control then returns to 1220.

At 1252, if a download has been requested, control transfers to 1256;otherwise, control transfers to 1260. At 1260, if the user logs out,control returns to 1304; otherwise, control returns to 1220. At 1256,control prepares a package of images and code to implement the desiredexternal functionality for the selected app. At 1264, control transmitsthe package to the developer for the developer's integration into an appunder development. Control then returns to 1220.

In FIG. 37A and FIG. 37B, a flowchart of example operation of a searchsystem according to the principles of the present disclosure is shown.Control starts at 1304 where the functions provided by apps of interestare identified. Over time, the scope of apps of interest may reach thesize of the various mainstream digital distribution platforms and maythen even further increase.

At 1308, control maps those functions to a function ontology and updatesthe function ontology if necessary. In other words, control determineswhether a streaming movie watching function of an app belongs is thesame function (or, equivalently, can be assigned to the same node) asother streaming movie watching functions, or if there is somethingunique that requires a different leaf node in the function ontology.

At 1312, control parameterizes access mechanisms to create accesstemplates by observing the URLs and other mechanisms used to accessspecifics states of the apps of interest. The variable portions of thoseaccess mechanisms can be identified so that the access mechanisms can becreated by plugging in values into a template.

At 1316, control updates entities corresponding to the apps of interest.For example, as new movies are released or announced, entity data storesfor movie-related apps will expand to include these additional entities.At 1320, if an action query is received, control transfers to 1372;otherwise, control continues at 1376. At 1376, control determineswhether a query wrapper has been received. If so, control transfers to1344 of FIG. 37B; otherwise, control continues at 1328.

At 1328, control determines whether a first periodic interval haslapsed. If so, controls returns back to 1324; otherwise, controlcontinues at 1332. At 1332, control determines whether a second periodicinterval has lapsed. If so, control transfers to 1316; otherwise,control continues to 1320. In various implementations, the firstperiodic interval may be longer than the second periodic interval. Invarious implementations, updating entities (the first periodic interval)may be a nightly process while updating functionality of apps (thesecond periodic interval) may be a monthly process.

At 1372, control determines whether an entity is explicitly specified inthe action query. If so, control transfers to 1380; otherwise, controltransfers to 1324 to infer the entity. At 1336, control identifies a setof possible entities based on the specified function in the actionquery. The possible entities is the set of entities that can be used toinstantiate the specified function. For example, if the specifiedfunction corresponds to function templates including a movie name,control identifies the set of possible movie names as candidateentities; meanwhile, entities that are specific to books or to addressesor to restaurants will be irrelevant to the specified function.

At 1340, control identifies one or more relevant entities from theidentified set according to the tokenized text. In some situations,multiple entities will be relevant, such as when there are multiplemovies with a title similar to the tokenized text. In addition,app-specific entities may overlap substantially, such as when a “DarkKnight” film entity is present for the NETFLIX video application as wellas for the HULU video application.

At 1342, control identifies a consideration set of possible functionalURLs based on the identified entities. As described above, accesstemplates first must have their parameters satisfied by the correctentity type. If an access template requires a certain type of entity andthat entity has not been identified, the access template cannot beapplied and therefore is removed from the consideration set.

Further, some if not all of the access templates require app-specificdata. If any of the app-specific data required by the access mechanismis not present within the relevant entities, that access mechanism isalso removed. Each valid triplet of application, function, and entity isrecorded, such as in a functional URL.

Control continues at 1384, where if relevant entities have beenidentified for the specific function, control transfers to 1388;otherwise, control transfers to 1392. At 1388, control returns resultsto the source of the action query indicating which of the specificfunction is available. Control then returns to 1328. At 1392, controlreturns results indicating that the function is unavailable. Controlthen continues at 1328.

At 1380, the entity was specified, so control determines whether thereare function templates that can be instantiated based on the specifiedentity. The specified entity may be a canonical entity or anapp-specific entity. For example, when the entity is a canonical entity,control determines whether any function templates can be instantiatedbased on the canonical entity or any app-specific entity correspondingto the canonical entity. If at least one function template can beinstantiated, control transfers to 1388; otherwise, control transfers to1392.

At 1344 of FIG. 37B, control scores the consideration set of functionalURLs corresponding to the identified relevant entities, which wasalready identified as part of the action query. The consideration set offunctional URLs may then be filtered based on developer choicesexpressed with the developer portal 304. Therefore, control continues at1348, where if the user device or app that transmitted the query wrapperis associated with specific search parameters, control transfers to1352; otherwise, control continues at 1356.

At 1352, control filters the consideration set based on the specifiedsearch parameters, which may include a blacklist. Control then continuesat 1356. In various implementations, the filtering may be performed aspart of the action query. In other words, if the developer hasblacklisted an app, and that app is the only choice for satisfying afunction, the search system may indicate that the function is notavailable.

At 1356, control identifies the sponsorship of apps corresponding tofunctional URLs and/or to entities. At 1360, based on sponsorship,control adjusts the ranking of functional URLs, such as by improving theranking of functional URLs that are receiving sponsorship. Additionallyor alternatively, control may selectively apply a sponsorship tag or acoupon tag to the functional URL, which causes the tagged functional URLto be translated into an access mechanism regardless of its organicscore. At 1364, control translates the highest-ranked functional URLsinto access mechanisms. At 1368, control responds to the user devicewith the access mechanisms corresponding to selected app states. Controlthen continues at 1328 of FIG. 37A.

Overall

The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in noway intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. Thebroad teachings of the disclosure can be implemented in a variety offorms. Therefore, while this disclosure includes particular examples,the true scope of the disclosure should not be so limited since othermodifications will become apparent upon a study of the drawings, thespecification, and the following claims. It should be understood thatone or more steps within a method may be executed in different order (orconcurrently) without altering the principles of the present disclosure.Further, although each of the embodiments is described above as havingcertain features, any one or more of those features described withrespect to any embodiment of the disclosure can be implemented in and/orcombined with features of any of the other embodiments, even if thatcombination is not explicitly described. In other words, the describedembodiments are not mutually exclusive, and permutations of one or moreembodiments with one another remain within the scope of this disclosure.

Spatial and functional relationships between elements (for example,between modules) are described using various terms, including“connected,” “engaged,” “interfaced,” and “coupled.” Unless explicitlydescribed as being “direct,” when a relationship between first andsecond elements is described in the above disclosure, that relationshipencompasses a direct relationship where no other intervening elementsare present between the first and second elements, and also an indirectrelationship where one or more intervening elements are present (eitherspatially or functionally) between the first and second elements. Asused herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be construedto mean a logical (A OR B OR C), using a non-exclusive logical OR, andshould not be construed to mean “at least one of A, at least one of B,and at least one of C.”

In this application, including the definitions below, the term ‘module’or the term ‘controller’ may be replaced with the term ‘circuit.’ Theterm ‘module’ may refer to, be part of, or include processor hardware(shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code and memory hardware(shared, dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processorhardware.

The module may include one or more interface circuits. In some examples,the interface circuits may include wired or wireless interfaces that areconnected to a local area network (LAN), the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), or combinations thereof. The functionality of any givenmodule of the present disclosure may be distributed among multiplemodules that are connected via interface circuits. For example, multiplemodules may allow load balancing. In a further example, a server (alsoknown as remote, or cloud) module may accomplish some functionality onbehalf of a client module.

The term code, as used above, may include software, firmware, and/ormicrocode, and may refer to programs, routines, functions, classes, datastructures, and/or objects. Shared processor hardware encompasses asingle microprocessor that executes some or all code from multiplemodules. Group processor hardware encompasses a microprocessor that, incombination with additional microprocessors, executes some or all codefrom one or more modules. References to multiple microprocessorsencompass multiple microprocessors on discrete dies, multiplemicroprocessors on a single die, multiple cores of a singlemicroprocessor, multiple threads of a single microprocessor, or acombination of the above.

Shared memory hardware encompasses a single memory device that storessome or all code from multiple modules. Group memory hardwareencompasses a memory device that, in combination with other memorydevices, stores some or all code from one or more modules.

The term memory hardware is a subset of the term computer-readablemedium. The term computer-readable medium, as used herein, does notencompass transitory electrical or electromagnetic signals propagatingthrough a medium (such as on a carrier wave); the term computer-readablemedium is therefore considered tangible and non-transitory. Non-limitingexamples of a non-transitory computer-readable medium are nonvolatilememory devices (such as a flash memory device, an erasable programmableread-only memory device, or a mask read-only memory device), volatilememory devices (such as a static random access memory device or adynamic random access memory device), magnetic storage media (such as ananalog or digital magnetic tape or a hard disk drive), and opticalstorage media (such as a CD, a DVD, or a Blu-ray Disc).

The apparatuses and methods described in this application may bepartially or fully implemented by a special purpose computer created byconfiguring a general purpose computer to execute one or more particularfunctions embodied in computer programs. The functional blocks andflowchart elements described above serve as software specifications,which can be translated into the computer programs by the routine workof a skilled technician or programmer.

The computer programs include processor-executable instructions that arestored on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. Thecomputer programs may also include or rely on stored data. The computerprograms may encompass a basic input/output system (BIOS) that interactswith hardware of the special purpose computer, device drivers thatinteract with particular devices of the special purpose computer, one ormore operating systems, user applications, background services,background applications, etc.

The computer programs may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed,such as HTML (hypertext markup language) or XML (extensible markuplanguage), (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated from sourcecode by a compiler, (iv) source code for execution by an interpreter,(v) source code for compilation and execution by a just-in-timecompiler, etc. As examples only, source code may be written using syntaxfrom languages including C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Haskell, Go,SQL, R, Lisp, Java®, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, Javascript®,HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5th revision), Ada, ASP (Active ServerPages), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk,Erlang, Ruby, Flash®, Visual Basic®, Lua, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and Python®.

None of the elements recited in the claims are intended to be ameans-plus-function element within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. §112(f)unless an element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or,in the case of a method claim, using the phrases “operation for” or“step for.”

1. A system of one or more computing devices comprising a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium including program instructions that, when theprogram instructions are executed by processor hardware, cause thesystem to: present a user interface to a first application developer;store, in a data store, information identifying a plurality of functionsand corresponding unique identifiers, wherein each of the plurality offunctions corresponds to external functionality available from thirdparty applications; receive, by an application functionality managementmodule, a selection from the first application developer of a firstfunction of the plurality of functions to supplement functionality of afirst application under development by the first application developer;and provide, by a code generation module, a first software object to thefirst application developer for incorporation into at least a firststate of the first application, wherein the first state includes a firstuser interface element associated with a first entity, and wherein thefirst software object includes instructions for: upon the first statebeing instantiated, transmitting an action query to a search system,wherein the action query includes the corresponding unique identifier ofthe first function and an indication of the first entity; receiving anaction response from the search system; selectively visually adaptingthe first user interface element in response to the action response; inresponse to user selection of the first user interface element,displaying a plurality of items from a result set from the searchsystem, wherein a first item of the plurality of items includes (i) anidentifier of a target application and (ii) an access mechanism for aspecified state of the target application; and in response to userselection of the first item, actuating the access mechanism to open thetarget application to the specified state.
 2. The system of claim 1wherein the visually adapting the first user interface element isperformed in response to the action response indicating that the firstfunction is not available for the first entity.
 3. The system of claim 1wherein the visually adapting the first user interface element includesrendering the first user interface element invisible.
 4. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element in gray to indicatenon-interactivity.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first softwareobject includes instructions for extracting text from the first stateand including the extracted text in the action query as the indicationof the first entity.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first softwareobject includes instructions for transmitting a query wrapper to thesearch system in response to user selection of the first user interfaceelement, wherein a response to the query wrapper is received from thesearch system and includes the result set.
 7. The system of claim 1wherein the action response from the search system includes the resultset.
 8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first software object includesinstructions for, in response to the user selection of the first userinterface element, extracting visual attributes of text from the firststate and including the extracted visual attributes of the text in theaction query.
 9. The system of claim 8 wherein the extracted visualattributes include at least one of vertical location of portions of thetext within the first state, font size, font type, and font emphasis.10. The system of claim 1 wherein the access mechanism specifiesdownloading and installing the target application from a digitaldistribution platform prior to opening the target application.
 11. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the first item includes a second accessmechanism, wherein the second access mechanism specifies opening a webedition of the target application to the specified state.
 12. The systemof claim 1 wherein the access mechanism includes a script to navigatefrom a default state of the target application to the specified state ofthe target application.
 13. The system of claim 1 wherein the programinstructions cause the system to store, by an application blockingmanagement module, a blacklist, wherein the blacklist indicatesapplications and application states to exclude from the result set. 14.The system of claim 13 wherein the program instructions cause the systemto incorporate, by the code generation module, the blacklist into thefirst software object, such that the first software object furtherincludes instructions for at least one of: removing application statesmatching the blacklist from the result set received from the searchsystem; providing the blacklist to the search system as part of theaction query; and preventing display of application states from theresult set that match the blacklist.
 15. A method comprising:presenting, by processor hardware, a user interface to a firstapplication developer; storing, in a data store, information identifyinga plurality of functions and corresponding unique identifiers, whereineach of the plurality of functions corresponds to external functionalityavailable from third party applications; receiving, by the processorhardware a selection from the first application developer of a firstfunction of the plurality of functions to supplement functionality of afirst application under development by the first application developer;and generating, by the processor hardware, a first software object forthe first application developer for incorporation into at least a firststate of the first application, wherein the first state includes a firstuser interface element associated with a first entity, and wherein thefirst software object includes instructions for, when executed onprocessor hardware of a user device: upon the first state beinginstantiated, transmitting an action query to a search system, whereinthe action query includes the corresponding unique identifier of thefirst function and an indication of the first entity; receiving anaction response from the search system; selectively visually adaptingthe first user interface element in response to the action response; inresponse to user selection of the first user interface element,displaying a plurality of items from a result set from the searchsystem, wherein a first item of the plurality of items includes (i) anidentifier of a target application and (ii) an access mechanism for aspecified state of the target application; and in response to userselection of the first item, actuating the access mechanism to open thetarget application to the specified state.
 16. The method of claim 15wherein the visually adapting the first user interface element isperformed in response to the action response indicating that the firstfunction is not available for the first entity.
 17. The method of claim15 wherein the visually adapting the first user interface elementincludes rendering the first user interface element invisible.
 18. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the visually adapting the first userinterface element includes rendering the first user interface element ingray to indicate non-interactivity.
 19. The method of claim 15 whereinthe first software object includes instructions for extracting text fromthe first state and including the extracted text in the action query asthe indication of the first entity.
 20. The method of claim 15 whereinthe first software object includes instructions for transmitting a querywrapper to the search system in response to user selection of the firstuser interface element, wherein a response to the query wrapper isreceived from the search system and includes the result set.
 21. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the action response from the search systemincludes the result set.
 22. The method of claim 15 wherein the firstsoftware object includes instructions for, in response to the userselection of the first user interface element, extracting visualattributes of text from the first state and including the extractedvisual attributes of the text in the action query.
 23. The method ofclaim 22 wherein the extracted visual attributes include at least one ofvertical location of portions of the text within the first state, fontsize, font type, and font emphasis.
 24. The method of claim 15 whereinthe access mechanism specifies downloading and installing the targetapplication from a digital distribution platform prior to opening thetarget application.
 25. The method of claim 15 wherein the first itemincludes a second access mechanism, wherein the second access mechanismspecifies opening a web edition of the target application to thespecified state.
 26. The method of claim 15 wherein the access mechanismincludes a script to navigate from a default state of the targetapplication to the specified state of the target application.
 27. Themethod of claim 15 further comprising storing a blacklist, wherein theblacklist indicates applications and application states to exclude fromthe result set.
 28. The method of claim 27 wherein generating the firstsoftware object includes incorporating the blacklist such that the firstsoftware object further includes instructions for at least one of:removing application states matching the blacklist from the result setreceived from the search system; providing the blacklist to the searchsystem as part of the action query; and preventing display ofapplication states from the result set that match the blacklist.